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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/28263432">The Mirror</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/Mickaelle/pseuds/Mickaelle'>Mickaelle</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Tenkuu no Escaflowne | The Vision of Escaflowne</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Gen, Post-Canon, Pre-Canon, Series Based, Some fights and violence but not so much, War</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-12-23</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2021-03-28</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-10 20:34:48</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>23</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>42,796</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/28263432</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/Mickaelle/pseuds/Mickaelle</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Celena’s tribulations within Zaibach before and during the war. Where she and Dilandau are twins.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>16</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>1. Adelphos</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>Hello, at first this work was supposed to be only some dialogues but it ended up with a whole story.<br/>So here follows the peregrinations of Celena and her meetings with various characters of Escaflowne.<br/>Hope you like it :)</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>‘I understand your request and usually it is not a problem for officers to receive visit of their families,’ General Adelphos said, stroking his beard, ‘but right now Dilandau is on a secret mission. I’ll make arrangement so that you can see him when he returns.’</p>
<p>The general-in-chief talked a bit ceremoniously to the young woman facing him. She was dressed in the fashion of the average nobility of Zaibach.</p>
<p>The girl smiled kindly, looking the man in the eye with no sheepishness or embarrass.</p>
<p>‘I’m afraid you misunderstood my brother’s request,’ she said and waited for a sign to keep going.</p>
<p>Instead the general leant again above the letter on his desk. Then he raised his face toward the girl and kept silent.</p>
<p>‘Dilandau would like you to interfere in my favour so that in can join Zaibach’s ranks,’ she explained, ‘in the army.’</p>
<p>The general frowned.</p>
<p>‘That would be unseemly,’ he said flatly.</p>
<p>He wasn’t really surprised by the request of his childish subordinate, but the young woman looking quietly at him seemed more reasonable. How could she say that so seriously?</p>
<p>The girl was as tall as him. She had refused the seat he had offered her, so he had kept standing as well, out of courtesy. Therefore they stood both erected, facing each other like two long rocks planted in the sea. For the first time of the interview, General Adelphos watched her with attention. She had almost every feature of Dilandau’s face. Adelphos had no doubt, looking at the curve of her shoulders and her bearing, that she was as strong as a man. The argument that she was too weak to be a soldier occurred absurd to him.</p>
<p>But it sure would cause trouble to bring a woman in such a men’s world. It was already a full time job to keep those boys from different backgrounds all in line. Not to mention that this maiden was beautiful, and that –in spite of her Zaibach apparel– she had nothing of the local type.</p>
<p>‘That would be unseemly,’ the general said again.</p>
<p>‘Because I am a woman?’ the girl asked ingenuously, and the general wouldn’t have sworn she was faking her surprise.</p>
<p>‘But,’ she spoke again with her quiet low voice, ‘Commandant Refina of the Salamander squadron is a woman, isn’t she?’</p>
<p>Sure General Adelphos wasn’t pleased to be reminded of this other troublesome element of his army but he replied with his usual honesty: ‘indeed Refina is a woman, but she was raised amongst soldiers. You on the contrary, if you excuse me for saying that, Miss Albatou, you are a stranger to the army.’</p>
<p>The girl didn’t move an eyelash at these words. She kept fixing upon him her child’s gaze, her eyes wide open in a sign of expectation.</p>
<p>Adelphos cleared his throat and tried to sound surly.</p>
<p>‘I can’t do more for you, Miss.’</p>
<p>He turned around the desk to place himself behind his chair and signify that the interview was over.</p>
<p>He had made up his mind.</p>
<p>There was no need for a woman here, and especially no need for another Dilandau.</p>
<p>But the girl was still here, remaining silent. Adelphos noticed that she no longer resembled a man. The thin fabric that wrapped her body ended on the fresh flesh of a child. She had lost her stiffness too, and the flouncy petticoats made her look like a flower slightly bending to display a more graceful curve. But still she looked like Dilandau.</p>
<p>General Adelphos knew what would happen if he showed the girl out without giving her satisfaction. Dilandau would soon burst in his tidy office and make a mess until he got what he wanted. Dealing with his better-mannered sister seemed far more pleasant.</p>
<p>The latter hadn’t moved. Adelphos wasn’t even sure he could get rid of her easier than of her brother. She was a child. A child knowing she would get what she had come for if she was patient long enough. And indeed General Adelphos was shorter of patience than her.</p>
<p>He massaged his temple in order to soothe the feeling of irritation. By a strength of character he had worked all his life long he managed to speak with the same courteous tone he had at the beginning of their talk.</p>
<p>‘I’m going to ask Refina’s opinion. If she is willing to enlist you in her squadron I will support you. Otherwise I’ll have to ask you to give up entering the army.’ he said, and the feeling of relief given by laying the responsibility on someone else was mixed with the worry about the association that could result of this decision.</p>
<p>The girl smiled, not with arrogance or satisfaction; just the same way she had smiled before correcting him.</p>
<p>‘I’m grateful to you, sir,’ she said and bowed her head a little while taking a step back.</p>
<p>‘May I ask you why you want to fight in our ranks, Miss Albatou?’ General Adelphos asked suddenly. It was strange that he hadn’t thought about it earlier.</p>
<p>The smile appeared again on the face of the girl.</p>
<p>‘I’ve never said I wanted to fight, sir, did I?’</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0002"><h2>2. Refina</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Refina was sitting in the semi-darkness of the room, in her panther-shaped throne that seemed ready to pounce. She rested her head on her left hand knuckles, poking her cheek with the little finger of that same hand.</p><p>Most of Zaibach soldiers believed that she was the secret or adoptive daughter of General Adelphos who wanted her to be the son he had never had. They were wrong. Refina was the daughter of a countryside noble family who had raised her like a girl. She was the one who had decided to become a fighter and to get rid of her education; and this in her early childhood.</p><p>Now she was looking at the girl who was standing three steps lower than her in front of the throne’s dais. At first, Refina had been displeased to see that the newcomer was wearing a dress instead of fighting outfit. But then she had acknowledged there was something amusing and daring in these clothes. It wasn’t one of the bulky dresses worn by noble ladies, nor was it the rough skirt of a working woman. It was quite a unique thing in Zaibach and Refina found it fitted the one who wore Dilandau’s name. The thin green dress was all the girl was wearing. No letter, no purse, no bag, and no weapon. After all she was only a civilian, and not wearing warrior outfit showed she acknowledged that the decision belonged to Refina. However, with only this light clothing, the slim maiden seemed ready to conquer the whole world.</p><p>When the girl lifted her face, the commandant of the Salamander squadron felt a twinge in her heart. She was Dilandau’s copy, a female version of the young man. Refina had been highly surprised when she had heard that Dilandau had a sister. She had always thought that he had no family at all or was at loggerheads with it. But there was the girl, standing patiently in front of her. The odd idea occurred to Refina that this woman was actually Dilandau in disguise, trying to play a trick on her. But she rejected that thought: they were no longer kids.</p><p>‘I’m pleased to meet you, Celena Albatou,’ Refina finally said.</p><p>The girl smiled in response and bowed her head, more briefly than when she had entered the room.</p><p>‘I entirely trust Dilandau for his choice of soldiers,’ the commandant added, ‘if it is what he wants you’ll be under my command. But I must ask you, why have you come here?’</p><p>‘To comply with my brother’s wishes,’ Celena replied.</p><p>Refina leant her head. With her eyes half-closed, she looked like a cat that gives the impression of sleeping whereas it is well aware of what is going on around it.</p><p>She felt close to the girl, just like if she was meeting Dilandau again.</p><p>‘And… why are you complying with your brother’s wishes?’ the commandant asked mischievously.</p><p>The smile stretched Celena’s lips once more, and Refina knew she would get no other answer. There was no need for it after all; they understood each other.</p><p>‘Before you join my squadron there is a favour I’d like to ask you.’</p><p>Refina stood up and they both walked toward the door. The young officer watched the tall blond girl out of the corner of her eye. She had fought many men, some stronger than her and most of them weaker. But women she had never fought. Celena’s presence intrigued and stimulated her. She already considered the girl as her alter ego or her rival and the idea of duelling with her made her mouth water. That girl who looked so much like Dilandau, how strong was she? Refina and Dilandau had contended many and many times together before becoming officers. Dilandau had always had the upper hand on her but he acknowledged she was a great adversary and a better fighter than his own subordinates.</p><p>‘I’d like to have a fight with you,’ Refina said with sparkling eyes.</p><p>‘I’d be honoured,’ Celena replied. She knew it wasn’t some kind of test to judge her level. It was just an old instinct that required this confrontation.</p><p>***</p><p>They faced each other on the track. Refina knew at the first step Celena took on the floor, at the swing of her hips, although less brutal than Dilandau’s, that she wouldn’t stand a chance of beating the strange girl.</p><p> </p><p>
  
</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>Thanks for reading!<br/>The illustration in on DeviantArt: https://www.deviantart.com/mick-aelle/art/Commandant-Refina-of-the-Salamander-squadron-864900924</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0003"><h2>3. Gatti</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>General Adelphos cast a glance at the two women looking at him. He was in his throne room, shining the leather of his sword sheath.</p><p>Celena was the same. Big child eyes planted in a teenager’s body, quiet and aware of their power. Refina on the contrary seemed moved, excited, flush on her cheeks and hunger in her eyes.</p><p>Adelphos had supposed that Refina would either make herself an enemy of the girl and fight her with all her will or take her under her wing like a little sister. He hadn’t foreseen that she could respect her as a “Senpai”. Refina had known no master, no man that she looked up to. Now she had found it.</p><p>General Adelphos placed his sword between the lion’s fangs and put his hand on the leg of the stone beast which was the left arm of the throne.</p><p>‘If I’ve understood well, Refina, you want me to name Miss Albatou commandant and give her her own squadron?’</p><p>‘Yes, General Adelphos, Celena Albatou would be a great asset for our country.’</p><p>The man repressed a groan. He knew who was behind this. It was Dilandau. Refina would shake heaven and hell to grant the capricious boy any wish. It was Dilandau’s plan from the very beginning to provide her sister with enough independence in the hierarchy so that she could become another arm for him.</p><p>From the day Refina and Dilandau had met, they had become accomplices in the daily task to drive the general up the wall, like a pair of devilish little imps.</p><p>Adelphos cursed the sorcerers. They were responsible for the presence of the two young people in his army. They had first taken Refina’s brother amongst their ranks to teach him their secret science. General Adelphos remembered perfectly the day Refina had come for the first time in his office. She and her family needed his authorization to visit her brother. She was dressed with skirt and ribbons, like a porcelain doll, silent. It was during this visit that she had decided to make a career in the army. Since then, General Adelphos had only seen her in armour, harassing him and every other officer to carve out a place for herself among them. If the sorcerers hadn’t taken her brother, she may not have been able to convince her family that she had to bring honour on their name in his place.</p><p>Then the sorcerers had brought Dilandau out of nowhere. This time General Adelphos wasn’t given the choice. He couldn’t discuss direct orders from those men.</p><p>And now there was a third one, a silent child against whom Adelphos was even more powerless than against the temperamental first two. Celena wasn’t the fact of the sorcerers, it seemed, but the general couldn’t be sure. What bothered him most was that none of those young people was actually concerned about the responsibilities that leant on them. Refina and Dilandau were ambitious and fight lovers, and thus could prove themselves useful for Zaibach if handled properly. But Celena had no visible intention and the general was wary of her apparent obedience.</p><p>‘Suppose I name her commandant, I don’t have fifteen men to place under her orders,’ General Adelphos stated.</p><p>Someone knocked at the door which opened, sizzling. A young man dressed in a blue uniform saluted.</p><p>‘Commandant Dilandau sent me here to be under Commandant Celena’s command as long as she requires me,’ he recited, standing straight like a stake, and as expressive as the said stake.</p><p>General Adelphos restrained himself from biting his fingers.</p><p>‘My commandant sent me ahead to inform you that he is joining General Folken on the Vione without coming back to headquarters. He wishes Commandant Celena would assist him in his future mission.’</p><p>At this point the general-in-chief was quite happy to learn that he wasn’t going to see Dilandau and that he could get rid of his sister at the same time.</p><p>‘If you don’t mind, sir, Commandant Celena will accompany me as soon as she is ready.’</p><p>‘Command Celena doesn’t have a proper uniform yet and no guymelef,’ Adelphos opposed mechanically.</p><p>The boy lifted the bundle he had kept under his arm.</p><p>‘Here is one of Commandant Dilandau’s uniforms. He provides it for Commandant Celena’s, as well as my guymelef.’</p><p>‘It’s fine then. Commandant Celena, you can leave with your squad,’ General Adelphos said abruptly.</p><p>‘I must thank you for your kind welcome, sir,’ Celena said and Adelphos avoided looking at her smile.</p><p>‘Have we finished, Refina?’ he asked the girl who was dreamily watching Celena and her new recruit leaving the room.</p><p>‘Yes sir!’ she clicked her heels and turned toward the door.</p><p>General Adelphos sat in his throne, mumbling between his teeth: ‘I’ll get you for this, sorcerers.’</p><p>***</p><p>The door opened and Celena appeared, dressed in the red armour of her brother. Strangely, she resembled less Dilandau wearing the same uniform as him than wearing her civilian outfit. She even looked a bit more feminine.</p><p>‘I apologize, Commandant Celena, I should have introduced myself earlier,’ the young soldier stated, still standing at the door.</p><p>‘You’re Gatti,’ she said kindly. She was sure that the boy hadn’t moved an eyelash from the moment she had closed the door of the small study to change till she had opened it again.</p><p>If the boy was surprised that she guessed his name so easily, he didn’t show it in the least, his face remaining perfectly expressionless.</p><p>Celena made a sound like a chuckle, her mouth closed, like if her joy had to be kept inward.</p><p>‘I know all of you,’ she said, ‘Dilandau described you for me,’ she paused then added gaily: ‘he said you, Gatti, were boring to death!’ The nasty sentence and the obvious intention to put the boy uncomfortable were counterbalanced by the angelic blue eyes that shone with cheerfulness.</p><p>For the first time Gatti let a very thin smile stretch his lips, almost imperceptible.</p><p>There were quick steps in the corridor and they both turned toward Refina.</p><p>‘This uniform suits you perfectly,’ the young officer observed, and her mouth took the shape of jubilation. In her eyes Celena was the incarnation of the War Goddess, shining with glory. Refina’s worship reached its height when the new officer placed absentmindedly her palm on the pommel of her sword.</p><p>‘Thank you for what you’ve done,’ Celena replied simply.</p><p>She nodded her head to say goodbye, and with this she walked away.</p><p>‘Have you been well, Refina?’ Gatti enquired.</p><p>‘Oh, well, apart from the lack of action I’m fine.’</p><p>The boy saluted shortly and hurried behind his commandant.</p><p>***</p><p>‘What was that with Commandant Refina?’ Celena asked Gatti while they were walking on the thin footbridge, surrounded by all kind of steel giants, above the dark ground that seemed miles away.</p><p>‘I had to greet my fiancée,’ Gatti replied.</p><p>‘I’m sorry?’</p><p>‘Refina and I were betrothed by our families when we were children,’ the boy explained flatly.</p><p>‘You and Commandant Refina?’ Celena had to repeat it to believe it. A woman couldn’t marry a man of lower rank than her. And even if Gatti’s family had a higher noble rank, she had a higher rank in the army. But the worse was their personalities. How could such a colourful strong-minded girl like Refina go with a self-effacing boy who acted only according to orders?</p><p>‘So you are going to marry Refina?’ Celena insisted.</p><p>‘No, Refina would never accept that,’ Gatti replied with a smile mixed with bitterness and amusement. It was the smile of a man who passively looked at destines, the one decided for him by other people, the one Refina had chosen for herself, and the true one, that would make its way through anything.</p><p>‘And then,’ Celena asked, ‘you’re gonna remain engaged forever?’</p><p>Gatti shrugged.</p><p>‘None of us is willing to deal with our families about breaking the engagement and it doesn’t really bother us, so I guess so. Unless Refina wants to marry someone else, but I doubt it.’</p><p>‘I see.’</p><p>Celena was laughing inwardly. Gatti’s life seemed a joke to her, a farce already written. And yet, if you could read between the lines, there was Gatti’s own story, silent but real, that he was living without being noticed, wisely avoiding catching the attention of Destiny.</p><p>They stopped in front of Gatti’s blue alseides. The boy triggered the opening of the cockpit and Celena jumped inside, as swift as a cat.</p><p>‘What are you waiting for? Come beside me!’ She exclaimed.</p><p>Gatti remained still.</p><p>‘There is only room for one person,’ he explained.</p><p>‘So what? It we’ll be a bit of a squash.’</p><p>‘That would be unseemly.’ There was no hesitation in Gatti’s voice and he made no move. ‘I can’t travel with you aboard your guymelef,’ he noted simply.</p><p>‘Alright…’ Celena closed the cockpit. The alseides took off and faced the boy who looked like a twig on the walkway.</p><p>The right arm of the guymelef pointed at Gatti.</p><p>The boy remained perfectly still as the Clymer Claw dashed toward him. No emotion on his face, no move backward. He just looked straight at Celena, with this almost insolent gaze of his, which had brought him more than one slap.</p><p>Just before hitting Gatti, the claw took the shape of a shovel which picked him up rather gently but quickly. Then the boy was brought against the giant armour and the odd carriage flew away.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>Thank you for reading!</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0004"><h2>4. Dilandau</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>So finally he appears along with some dragonslayers!<br/>Hopefully a funny chapter</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>‘Your wine has no taste,’ Celena stated and put back her glass on the table.</p><p>‘You have no taste,’ Dilandau sneered and poured himself a second glass.</p><p>He leaned against the back of his chair.</p><p>‘So, what do you think of Gatti? Are you satisfied with him?’</p><p>‘He is not funny. Always true to form. Can anything surprise him at all?’</p><p>‘No, and I tried a lot,’ Dilandau chuckled.</p><p>‘What do you say giving me Guimel in exchange for Gatti?’ the girl asked, opening widely her lovely eyes.</p><p>‘You can’t have Guimel,’ her brother shrugged, ‘he is too good.’</p><p>‘Then what about Chesta?’</p><p>‘I keep Chesta,’ Dilandau’s eyes were shining and one corner of his mouth stretched in the smirk.</p><p>‘Miguel, then?’ Celena continued the game.</p><p>‘Like the hell I would let you have Miguel!’ the young officer scoffed.</p><p>‘Oh fine, you just gave me the one you don’t want!’</p><p>‘Gatti is very good.’ Dilandau took a sip of wine. ‘He took care of morning training and paperwork stuff… I had to put three men to take over his tasks. Oh well, Dalet is doing fine training his comrades, Ryuon takes charge of messages and Yaifa writes good stupid reports. See? You are lucky after all.’</p><p>‘Then what about exchanging Dalet, Ryuon and Yaifa against Gatti?’ Celena said, smiling.</p><p>‘That would be ridiculous. Three men against only one? Nah, I don’t buy it.’ Dilandau replied and emptied his third glass.</p><p>He poured himself the rest of the bottle which sounded on the table when he put it back.</p><p>Almost at the same time Gatti clicked his heels, standing at the door. Ha was carrying another bottle.</p><p>‘Look at that,’ Dilandau said while the boy was pouring their glasses. ‘There’s no one else able to do that. He goes like clockwork. I never wait for my wine.’</p><p>‘I don’t like wine,’ Celena objected.</p><p>‘Then drink rum.’</p><p>Gatti left the room.</p><p>‘That was mean of me trying to get rid of him, wasn’t it?’ the girl asked.</p><p>‘I don’t know and I don’t care. You’re not good at bargaining.’</p><p>The girl smiled and Dilandau stared.</p><p>‘Stop smiling like this, you look dumb.’</p><p>Celena stopped smiling and her face became an empty mask, absolutely expressionless.</p><p>‘It’s better,’ the boy commented.</p><p>They remained silent for a short time then Celena’s mask broke into her gentle, kind smile.</p><p>‘It’s funny,’ she said, ‘smiling is my only expression and it is the only expression you can’t have.’</p><p>‘I can smile,’ Dilandau retorted and frowned.</p><p>‘But when you do you look nasty.’</p><p>The youth frowned a little more, which triggered the closed-mouth chuckle of Celena.</p><p>***</p><p>‘You’ve missed morning training!’</p><p>Gatti turned toward the brown haired boy who had just patted him on the shoulder.</p><p>‘I’m no longer in the dragonslayers squadron,’ the young soldier replied.</p><p>‘Geez, training is even more boring with Dalet,’ the other complained. ‘What have you done this morning?’</p><p>‘I took part in Commandant Dilandau and Commandant Celena’s training.’</p><p>‘You? Alone with both of them?’</p><p>They entered the refectory and headed toward the rest of the squad.</p><p>‘Are you jealous, Miguel?’</p><p>‘Hell if I am! You’re a pariah now that you left the squad.’</p><p>‘Yes, I guess it doesn’t worth a private flight training.’</p><p>‘A what?’ Miguel gulped with difficulty. ‘You little bastard have used your guymelef? Folken forbade us to train outside during flight!’</p><p>‘Apparently the rules are different for Commandant Celena.’</p><p>‘And her angel eyes,’ Miguel completed. He paused, then he suddenly burst into laughter. ‘You should have seen Folken’s face when he saw her and Commandant Dilandau! His eyes were gonna pop out of his head! Can you imagine? Two Dilandaus! He must have believed he had hallucinations!’</p><p>‘I was there. And refer to your superior as “Commandant Dilandau”,’ Gatti replied rather coldly sitting next to Ryuon.</p><p>‘Hey hey! You’re no longer second in command; you can’t tell me what to do. Actually who is it now? Geez, I’m stupid! Commandant Dilandau will certainly designate me.’</p><p>Ryuon coughed noisily and waved a chicken leg toward the cocky boy.</p><p>‘You’re dreaming. Even if you were given the honour you wouldn’t assume the job longer than a day!’ This being said, the tall blond boy made the entire drumstick disappear in his mouth.</p><p>‘Sure, you would have to get up first to wake up the others,’ Dalet approved.</p><p>‘And you’ll have to write loooong report for General Folken or General Adelphos,’ Yaifa added.</p><p>‘But Miguel cannot write,’ Guimel objected, ‘there is no way he could make a report.’</p><p>There was a sudden silence.</p><p>‘This wasn’t very nice, Guimel,’ Chesta said softly.</p><p>‘Why do you say that?’ the cream-haired boy asked, staring at his comrade with dreamy eyes.</p><p>Miguel laughed loudly; a fake laughter which didn’t fool anyone.</p><p>‘Yeah, you’re right! There’s no way I could do such boring things, that’s definitely Gatti’s job!’</p><p>He sat heavily.</p><p>During the awkward silence which followed, he stole a piece of meat in Guimel’s plate to cheer himself up. The stratagem worked, for just after having bitten the meat he nudged Gatti.</p><p>‘Have you seen your fiancée?’ he asked with a smirk and some of the boys snickered.</p><p>‘Yes,’ Gatti replied, imperturbable.</p><p>‘Have you enjoyed? You won’t see her before months, you little piglet should better have got off… Did she allow you?’</p><p>‘You know,’ Dalet replied in Gatti’s place, looking annoyed, ‘you can’t touch your fiancée before wedding, at least when you have a bit of education.’</p><p>‘Suddenly engagement sounds less attractive,’ Miguel raised his eyes heavenward. ‘I don’t know how you can stand it. Refina is quite a well-endowed woman, with big…’</p><p>The rest of the sentence was muffled in beans and stew for a hand was strongly pressing Miguel’s face in his plate.</p><p>The boy escaped the grip and was about to respond when he understood the hand belonged to Dilandau.</p><p>‘Commandant Refina isn’t your direct superior but she’s got a higher rank than you. Show her respect!’ the young officer snapped.</p><p>‘He really is an undisciplined soldier. I would understand that you don’t want to keep him in your squad,’ Celena purred behind him. ‘I could take him in mine.’</p><p>Dilandau smiled from one corner of his mouth.</p><p>‘Alright boys, if you’ve finished stuffing yourselves, Commandant Celena will do you the honour to attend your training.’</p><p>***</p><p>The training occurred as usual. Gatti took back his place among the dragonslayers. Celena watched her brother giving instructions and contending with his men.</p><p>It was at the end of the session that Dilandau and she started a sword fight which was both a demonstration for the young soldiers and a fierce duel.</p><p>From the very start it was clear that none of them could have the upper hand on the other. The boys looked at them, astounded. The two fighters swirled, like birds, dashed and hit, making their blades thunder, and the sparkle on the metal was like lightning.</p><p>‘They make the same movements with the opposite hand,’ Ryuon muttered for himself.</p><p>‘It’s like if they could read each other’s mind,’ Chesta added.</p><p>‘It’s more like if they had the same thought at the same time,’ Viole corrected.</p><p>‘Can’t you guys just shut up and enjoy?’ Dalet scolded.</p><p>Dilandau and Celena eventually put an end to their duel. At the end of the training session, like every day, Dilandau paced in front of his kneeling men, debriefing them. When he had finished with the daily observations, he came closer and stopped, looking at them from all his height.</p><p>‘Commandant Celena will assist me in my future mission. She requires men under his command.’ There, Dilandau narrowed his eyes, ‘who is volunteer to belong to her squadron?’</p><p>The boys remained still and silent, keeping their heads bowed toward the floor. Even if Celena was their commandant’s sister, they wouldn’t take the risk to upset him by leaving his squadron. Actually they didn’t want to leave him, and if some of them had considered accepting, it was because they had wondered if it was Dilandau’s wish. However his tone and the previous duel made it clear that he was in some sort of competition with the maiden to win them.</p><p>Regarding their own will, they had no particular desire to work for Celena.</p><p>‘I do,’ someone said and the other boys froze with angst.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0005"><h2>5. Guimel</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Dilandau’s eyes narrowed to the point one could have thought they were closed but his irises were still visible, frighteningly stretched vertically.</p>
<p>The boy who had spoken was still in the same position as his comrades.</p>
<p>Dilandau knew that the soldier had no idea of how cheeky he was, and thus was able to relax some.</p>
<p>‘You can join Commandant Celena, Guimel.’</p>
<p>‘That’s nice of you, Guimel,’ Celena said, smiling at the boy who walked toward her.</p>
<p>‘Why do you say that, madam?’</p>
<p>Celena chuckled.</p>
<p>‘Come with me.’</p>
<p>***</p>
<p>The corridor was plunged in the darkness, only disturbed by the wall torches that could only light themselves.</p>
<p>Inside the Vione, it was hard to distinguish between night and day, for most of the vessel’s parts had no window. Yet Dilandau knew it was nightfall, because a peculiar freshness lightened the atmosphere.</p>
<p>Thinking again about Celena’s words, he couldn’t admit that she was right. He was young and handsome, and he could display a nice smile if he wanted to. He just had to keep his eyes wide open and to hide his canines while stretching the corners of his lips…</p>
<p>‘Are you trying to smile, sir?’</p>
<p>Guimel was there, standing under a candlestick. He was looking straight ahead, perfectly still, and if Dilandau hadn’t acknowledged his voice and tone, he wouldn’t have believed it was that boy who had just spoken. Guimel reminded him of those white porcelain dolls that remain standing thanks to a metal rod and close their eyes when put to bed.</p>
<p>The young officer couldn’t remember having seen this soldier blinking only once. However Guimel had no support, which made him look like some kind of more sophisticated doll that could stand by its own.</p>
<p>‘What are you doing in front of the bathroom door?’ Dilandau snapped.</p>
<p>‘Commandant Celena told me to wait for her here.’</p>
<p>‘Did she tell you to “wait here” or did she tell you to “wait” when you were here?’ the officer asked, for Guimel always took orders at face value, and in the stricter way.</p>
<p>‘What difference does it make? In both cases I have to wait here.’</p>
<p>Dilandau gave up explaining him that he was allowed to wait somewhere else because that was logic the boy just couldn’t get.</p>
<p>‘I’ve never seen you smiling before,’ the young officer suddenly realised. ‘Do it.’</p>
<p>There was a light movement on Guimel’s face, like a disapproving frown or disdain.</p>
<p>‘I don’t do things like this in public, sir.’</p>
<p>That was why Dilandau was so found of the lunar boy: he had no common sense and was the most unpredictable person he knew.</p>
<p>‘It’s an order. Smile.’</p>
<p>‘But I’m under Commandant Celena’s orders,’ Guimel replied without any trace of mischief.</p>
<p>Any other soldier of the team would have spent a hard time after such words. But Dilandau knew well that it was useless with Guimel. The boy couldn’t understand violence more than logic that went away from mathematical laws. He could be taught that acting respectfully was a rule, but he couldn’t be taught respect.</p>
<p>Therefore Dilandau was in a situation where he couldn’t be obeyed, and that, was the real problem.</p>
<p>‘Come on Guimel,’ Celena exclaimed gaily from behind the door, ‘do smile!’</p>
<p>‘Yes, madam.’</p>
<p>‘Oh f***!’ was Dilandau’s almost immediate reaction.</p>
<p>‘Does he look cute?’ the girl enquired.</p>
<p>‘He looks like the child of Apocalypse.’</p>
<p>There was a silence.</p>
<p>‘I’ll assume it means he looks cute.’</p>
<p>‘It’s above that. You don’t do that in front of other people, Guimel, that’s indecent.’</p>
<p>After all, that boy had some common sense.</p>
<p>Dilandau hammered on the door: ‘how long are you gonna stay in there? Dammit! It’s my bathroom!’</p>
<p>He heard a splash in answer, which told him that Celena had plunged her head in the water and was no longer able to hear him tempering.</p>
<p>***</p>
<p>If Guimel’s smile was cute in hell, Celena couldn’t say. But sure Guimel’s sleepy face was worth the sight.</p>
<p>‘Will you come with me?’ she whispered.</p>
<p>‘Yes, madam.’</p>
<p>Celena paused and resist the temptation to fiddle with the boy’s fluffy hair.</p>
<p>‘Why did you accept to join my squad?’</p>
<p>‘I like you,’ Guimel replied, rubbing his eyes with one hand.</p>
<p>This time it was too much, Celena plunged her fingers in the mass of white hair and played with the soft curls, like a little girl.</p>
<p>She turned serious again. ‘Alright, let’s go.’</p>
<p>They went upstairs, to the highest floor of the vessel. At this hour of the night, all the torches were out and they progressed with the light of a small candle. They walked along a corridor, turned right and found themselves in front of a security door.</p>
<p>Celena pointed at the electric box next to de door.</p>
<p>‘We need the security code.’</p>
<p>‘I’ve seen Folken entering the combination once,’ Guimel said.</p>
<p>He started to type a sequence of numbers. Celena stopped counting after ten figures but the boy kept typing one number after another for a while before the door opened.</p>
<p>‘I’m lucky to have you,’ Celana said, entering the dark room.</p>
<p>It was a long laboratory that the small candle couldn’t light entirely. They walked between lab benches, strange machines and chemistry equipment.</p>
<p>At one point Celena noticed that Guimel was no longer behind her. She kept going forward, palpating along her way with her fingertips, moving her arm from top to bottom. On a high up shelf, she felt the texture of paper. She dragged the open book that cracked in her hands like an old tree. She put it on a table and brought the candle above the pages.</p>
<p>This movement also lit a tall dark figure standing on the other side of the table.</p>
<p> </p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0006"><h2>6. Folken</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Folken came closer.</p>
<p>He was taller than Celena and thus looked down at her. His long chin was lit by the little flame, and though the upper part of his face was plunged in the darkness, the girl could see his red irises glimmering.</p>
<p>‘You are not allowed to be here, Commandant Celena,’ he said severely.</p>
<p>Celena kept silent and smiled, because it was what she did the best and because it was the first time she found a man handsome. Her gaze ran down his long figure, then up and down the black cloak which made Folken look like a henchman of Death.</p>
<p>‘I’m looking for a sorcerer,’ she said, showing her white teeth in a flash.</p>
<p>Folken remained silent in his turn.</p>
<p>He bypassed the table and took the book from her hands, before replacing it on the shelf.</p>
<p>‘Let me show you out,’ he said, sounding more affable than previously, and at the same time more threatening.</p>
<p>He took and few steps toward the exit but stopped when Celena chuckled.</p>
<p>‘Not so close from my goal,’ she whispered.</p>
<p>She receded toward the shelves and stroked the wood with her fingers as a matter of provocation.</p>
<p>‘You are far from your goal,’ Folken replied without looking at her, ‘there is no sorcerer here.’</p>
<p>‘What about this black cloak of yours?’</p>
<p>‘I have no longer links with their cast.’</p>
<p>‘Where are they?’</p>
<p>‘I can’t tell you that.’</p>
<p>‘What can you tell me then? I need to know…’ her voice disappeared.</p>
<p>‘Are you crying?’</p>
<p>‘I can’t cry.’</p>
<p>He turned around and looked at her face.</p>
<p>‘Why did you board the Vione?’ he asked.</p>
<p>She made a sound like a growl and sat heavily on a chair, elbows on the table and face on her fists.</p>
<p>‘Why did <i>you</i> board the Vione when you have wings to fly freely?’ she retorted.</p>
<p>Folken smirked, breaking for the first time his mask of impassibility.</p>
<p>‘Dilandau had promised me his silence,’ he mumbled, clicking his tongue and pacing behind her. ‘You are not here to assist your brother,’ he mused, ‘but why would you want to meet the sorcerers?’</p>
<p>‘Why did you leave them?’ was her grouchy answer.</p>
<p>Celena suddenly turned to look the man in the eye.</p>
<p>‘All those slaves they have to serve their devilish works, were do they come from?’</p>
<p>‘Annexed countries, for most of them…’</p>
<p>‘You mean conquered countries!’</p>
<p>‘…some beastmen were from independent villages in retired parts of Zaibach, like forests or mountains.’</p>
<p>‘It’s useless,’ Celena shrugged ‘what I need to know is where they are now.’</p>
<p>Her shoulders dropped and she stood up slowly. ‘I’m sorry I have rummaged through your laboratory, general.’ Her disturbing smile appeared, as ingenuous and empty as always.</p>
<p>‘Some of them have left the sorcerers,’ Folken said whereas she was about to reach the door. ‘I’ve heard of a massive escape.’</p>
<p>‘You’re someone nice,’ Celena replied, ‘you shouldn’t keep my brother under your command.’</p>
<p>Someone clicked his heels a little further away. There was only a pair of wide green eyes shining in the dark.</p>
<p>‘Here are some documents that might interest you, Commandant Celena,’ Guimel said.</p>
<p>He stepped forward to hand the papers to his superior but Folken intercepted them.</p>
<p>‘I can’t allow you to take those.’</p>
<p>‘It’s fine,’ Celena smiled, ‘Guimel has a photographic memory.’</p>
<p>She curtsied like a civilian.</p>
<p>‘I hope I’ll have the pleasure to meet you again, sir.’</p>
<p>***</p>
<p>‘What were those papers?’</p>
<p>‘Coordinates of some laboratories near headquarters.’</p>
<p>‘I can’t believe Folken let you go away just after that!’ Gatti exclaimed.</p>
<p>‘No one would wish to upset Commandant Celena. She is very nice,’ Guimel replied.</p>
<p>‘That’s not the problem.’</p>
<p>‘I’m no longer your commandant, Guimel,’ Celena said. She stepped out of the changing room, dressed in her green dress and carrying her brother’s uniform on her arm.</p>
<p>‘Please take care of this,’ she asked, handing the red armour to Guimel. ‘I’m gonna leave now.’</p>
<p>Gatti accompanied her to the exit. She wore only her small bundle that became a red stain on her shoulder when she crossed the walkway leading to the dried land at Zaibach’s border. She turned back and waved at the boy before a cloud of dust wrapped her and took her away.</p>
<p>Gatti wasn’t going to meet her again before several months.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>And this is the end of the first part... next chapters coming soon!</p>
<p>Thanks for reading :)</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0007"><h2>7. Miguel</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Here I start to get away from the original story, hope you like it!</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Gatti didn’t know how she had boarded the Vione. She was there, just like this, just like she had disappeared a few months ago. What disturbed the boy was the scar on her cheek. It was the exact same scar that Fanelia’s king had done to Dilandau, except it was on the opposite side of her face.</p>
<p>‘I have to see Dilandau,’ she said.</p>
<p>Gatti remained silent for a moment. He watched her expressionless face. No smile this time.</p>
<p>‘Commandant Dilandau is out for a mission tonight, madam.’ he replied.</p>
<p>‘I see, I’ll wait in his room.’</p>
<p>Gatti breathed shortly.</p>
<p>‘Madam, I need you help!’</p>
<p>It was the first time Celena could see the boy moved. Although she wasn’t sure why he suddenly confided in her, she was curious about what could trouble him in the end.</p>
<p>‘It’s Miguel,’ Gatti explained, ‘he has been taken prisoner by Freid. Commandant Dilandau won’t rescue him.’</p>
<p>Celena nodded. Her face didn’t show any gravity but the young man understood that he had all her attention.</p>
<p>The girl wasn’t surprised that her brother would abandon a soldier who had failed him. But she also knew well the devotion of the youths under his command.</p>
<p>‘According to Folken’s plan, Miguel should escape in the end,’ Gatti added, ‘but I’m afraid he might do something stupid. You know, to win his reintegration in the squad…’</p>
<p>‘I’ll take care of this,’ Celena cut him off. ‘But I need you to give a message to your commandant.’ She took a few seconds to formulate it. ‘Tell him that I’m gonna find the sorcerers, and if I can’t have satisfaction I’ll start an open war with them.’</p>
<p>Gatti’s face darkened.</p>
<p>‘You shouldn’t tell this to me, madam. It’s too dangerous.’</p>
<p>‘You wouldn’t betray Dilandau. If you don’t cause him trouble, you won’t cause me trouble.’</p>
<p>***</p>
<p>Among the clear buildings of Godashim, Celena slid like a shadow. Not far from her was the giant white guymelef, surrounded by small soldiers, and at its feet the carcass of an alseides. The girl passed behind a hangar and took a narrow dark street on her left.</p>
<p>Miguel had stopped moving but the doppelganger kept squeezing his throat. His hands and head stuck out on the wall while the rest of his body was unseen.</p>
<p>Celena bounced. The heel of her boot hit the wall right where the face of the man appeared just a split second before.</p>
<p>Miguel didn’t fall but remained sat, his head hanging on his chest.</p>
<p>Celena checked his breath and grabbed his wrists to drag him away.</p>
<p>***</p>
<p>Miguel looked around him, keeping his eyes half-closed and remaining perfectly still. He was in a sort of shack made of dry mud with little furniture: only enough to cook and the cot on where he lay.</p>
<p>He started when he recognised the blond girl, sat near the fire place and crushing something in a clay pot. Jumping on his feet, he rushed to the door.</p>
<p>‘I have to go back to the Vione!’</p>
<p>‘Then go,’ Celena said.</p>
<p>Miguel turned suddenly feverish. He paced forward and backward, wringing his hands.</p>
<p>‘But Commandant Dilandau will never reinstate me after what happened…’</p>
<p>‘I know,’ the girl was still crushing seeds, imperturbable.</p>
<p>The boy walked along the circular walls of the shack and came back to his starting point.</p>
<p>‘What is this place?’</p>
<p>‘A shepherd house.’</p>
<p>‘Where is the shepherd?’</p>
<p>‘Higher in the mountain. He’ll come back at the end of the season.’</p>
<p>He sat down nervously, next to the girl, and for the first time he examined the scar on her face.</p>
<p>‘Are you a witch or something like that?’</p>
<p>‘No.’</p>
<p>Miguel immediately regretted his harsh words. After all she had taken care of him. Had she? How had they ended up there?</p>
<p>‘Did you… did you save me?’ he asked uneasily while he palpated his throat which still hurt. He could feel the ice-like fingers of Zongi.</p>
<p>‘Yes.’</p>
<p>The young soldier felt heat and blush growing up on his face and his mouth dried. The low chuckle of the girl made him start again.</p>
<p>‘You’re too proud to thank me, are you?’ </p>
<p>Celena handed him the bowl.</p>
<p>‘It’s good if you pour boiling water,’ she explained and stood up.</p>
<p>‘Where are you going?’</p>
<p>‘You talked about a girl from the Mystic Moon in your sleep. I’m curious about her.’</p>
<p>‘The girl! I have to report to Commandant Dilandau!’</p>
<p>‘I think the doppelganger has taken care of it.’</p>
<p>Miguel joined Celena on the doorstep. The city was a white circle on the red sand, down in the valley. The dawn was rising.</p>
<p>‘It will take a day of walk to go there!’ he exclaimed.</p>
<p>‘A bit less for me,’ Celena replied.</p>
<p>She walked away in the dim light but then turned around to face him. Backlit by the blurry sun and wrapped in gleaming dust, she looked like a spirit or a mirage.</p>
<p>‘What are you gonna do, Miguel?’</p>
<p>The boy didn’t have the answer. He turned away from the cloud of dust –anyway he couldn’t see if Celena was still there or not– and went inside the house.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0008"><h2>8. Hitomi</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Celena reached the suburbs in the afternoon. She roamed in the maze of streets without being bothered by the citizens, as if she was only a shadow on the walls, with no solid body to produce it.</p>
<p>Everywhere people were preparing for war. The girl took time to watch those quiet men, obviously not brawler persons. However they welcomed their duty and fate and wore their heavy weapons like they had worn their heavy working tools the day before.</p>
<p>The night was falling when she entered the Duke’s gardens. Here it was another world of silence, except for the rippling water and the rustling foliage.</p>
<p>Thus, when she heard a shrill voice she believed it belonged to some kind of forest spirit who had lost his way in the labyrinthine garden.</p>
<p>It was only a little boy who was sitting near a pool, next to a teenage girl.</p>
<p>Celena remained hidden behind bushes, standing straight, mysteriously captivated by the scene. The boy wore noble clothes of Freiden style but the girl near him had a strange outfit, not the one of a servant or a noble, not even from a foreign country. Or maybe a far far-off country… So it was her, the girl from the Mystic Moon?</p>
<p>She took out a deck of cards, and to Celena’s amazement, she started a <i>reading</i>. She could see past and future. It was better than all she could hope.</p>
<p>While the girl was coming back to the castle, Celena followed her. Hitomi was her name, as the little boy had called her.</p>
<p>Celena couldn’t pass the door but she swiftly climbed on the wall and pulled herself on the girl’s balcony. It didn’t take long before she walked out of her room, both sheepish and curious when she headed toward the tall long figure of Celena.</p>
<p>The night was almost complete now, but the blond woman wasn’t sure if Hitomi could recognise the face of Dilandau –and his scar.</p>
<p>‘I’m pleased to meet you Hitomi, my name is Celena,’ she said and smiled, ‘I’m looking for a friend of mine who is missing for years, will you help me?’</p>
<p>The other girl squeezed the cards in her hand and remained silent.</p>
<p>Celena knew her smile was her best argument. It had always been so.</p>
<p>‘I’ll need your help,’ Hitomi replied.</p>
<p>And like this, without asking any question she made Celena sit in front of her. They faced each other, cross-legged, and Hitomi placed her cards on the stone floor.</p>
<p>‘You need to focus on your friend,’ she said, taking the string of her pendant between her fingers.</p>
<p>Celena stared at the red jewel, already mesmerized by its light rocking.</p>
<p>The brown-haired girl flipped a card.</p>
<p>‘You are going to make a long journey,’ she started.</p>
<p>‘I know that,’ Celena muttered, fascinated by the glimmering of the pendant.</p>
<p>Hitomi flipped a second card.</p>
<p>‘This means that you won’t come back to your starting point. You may eventually find your friend but then you’ll have to part.’</p>
<p>‘Where is he?’ Celena asked herself. She had closed her eyes.</p>
<p>Hitomi drew another card.</p>
<p>‘This card means the roots or the beginning.’</p>
<p>‘Roots?’</p>
<p>‘I’m not sure.’</p>
<p>‘What can you see about my root?’</p>
<p>The girl picked up a card on the ground and her face suddenly froze. This time she was sure. She had removed the blank card from her deck before the reading.</p>
<p>‘What’s going on?’</p>
<p>‘I can’t tell you anything about your roots.’</p>
<p>Celena smiled with her strange empty smile which chilled Hitomi for the first time of their interview. She took the card from Hitomi’s hand.</p>
<p>‘I’m not so surprised,’ she said after a silence. ‘What’s next?’ She herself drew the next card, but as she had just flipped it, Hitomi let out a cry. Her eyes became blind while they widened with horror and she would have collapsed hadn’t Celena’s strong arm caught her.</p>
<p>‘Van! Stop!’ she screamed faintly, ‘Please stop!’</p>
<p>She looked at Celena who was holding her in her arms like a little child. She was shivering, unable to speak.</p>
<p>‘Have you screamed Hitomi?’ Merle meowed sleepily from inside the room.</p>
<p>Celena stroke her scar with her index tip. <i>Van</i>.</p>
<p>‘Who is he gonna kill?’ she asked.</p>
<p>There was something icy in her voice, although she was still smiling.</p>
<p>Hitomi’s eyes rounded. She didn’t want to talk but it was as if her lips were moving by their own. ‘Dilandau’s men…’</p>
<p>Merle stepped on the cold floor of the balcony, cursing Hitomi. ‘What are you doing?’</p>
<p>Hitomi had leant her elbows on the guardrail, looking dreamily at the Mystic Moon.</p>
<p>‘Root…’</p>
<p>***</p>
<p>Only few minutes later, Celena was slipping into Van’s room. The boy was sleeping and he didn’t wake up when she walked along his bed. Hard to believe that teenage boy was a king. Celena’s gaze fell upon the royal sword of Fanelia. It would be so easy to kill him in his sleep. She took the sword. Something prevented her from hurting the young man. Maybe she couldn’t resolve to kill someone in his sleep. Maybe she couldn’t kill at all.</p>
<p>She left the room, still holding the blue sword.</p>
<p>In the corridor, she had to shrink in the shadow for someone was standing a little ahead of her in front of a door.</p>
<p>All she could distinguish was a female figure with long blond hair which glimmered with the light of the candle the lady was holding.</p>
<p>‘Goodnight Allen,’ the woman said and closed the door.</p>
<p>Celena followed her from a distance, but when she walked in front of the door of the named Allen she slowed down and stopped, as if and invisible force attracted her. She put her hand on the wood, and she was about to push it when the thought of the dragon slayers caught her again.</p>
<p>She followed her path to the guymelef hangar. There, with infinite caution to avoid noise she climbed on the Escaflowne and reached the giant sword. She palpated the cold metal, eyes closed, to feel the lines of force and of weakness. Then she set to work, filing down the huge blade with the smaller one.</p>
<p>***</p>
<p>Before the dawn, Van’s sword was back at his bedside.</p>
<p>Celena, for her part was halfway toward the shepherd house.</p>
<p>The land was arid but slightly rolling. Some of the bushes spread here and there hid sharply cut ravine, forming natural traps for the inattentive traveller.</p>
<p>It was in one of those ravines that she found Miguel, slumped on his back.</p>
<p>‘Are you hurt?’ she asked, bending over him.</p>
<p>‘No I’m fine,’ he replied and dusted his sleeve. ‘Geez! My jacket is all scratched up!’</p>
<p>Celena grabbed the said jacket and dragged Miguel out of the ditch.</p>
<p>‘Then why don’t you remove it? It’s too hot to wear this leather uniform.’</p>
<p>The boy glared at her.</p>
<p>‘I’m a soldier! I have to wear my uniform no matter what!’</p>
<p>‘Sure.’ She looked toward Godashim and smiled. ‘You were trying to join the Vione, weren’t you? It’s too far for you.’</p>
<p>Miguel’s anger disappeared and the corners of his mouth dropped.</p>
<p>‘I’ve heard of a place named Fortona Temple. I’m going there,’ she said ‘Without wishing to command you I recommend that you come with me.’</p>
<p>‘But I must find Commandant Dilandau,’ Miguel replied like an automate, looking more downcast than ever.</p>
<p>‘He’ll go there too, in the end.’</p>
<p>***</p>
<p>They were walking along a rocky crest when the first beam of light pierced above the faraway mountains, beyond the city. At this moment the war broke out. The dark sky was suddenly painted with red shine and smoke. From their spot, Celena couldn’t hear any noise but the ground was trembling loudly.</p>
<p>Miguel stepped toward the edge of the cliff, facing the valley.</p>
<p>‘I should be there. Commandant Dilandau needs me.’</p>
<p>‘What use could you be for him? You’ll be an ant in a burning anthill,’ Celena retorted.</p>
<p>‘It’s my duty.’</p>
<p>‘Alright,’ the girl walked away. ‘Go there, die on the battlefield. Dilandau won’t even know you were there. Or maybe you’ll just arrive when it’s over.</p>
<p>Miguel kept watching the glowing town for a moment. Then he turned his back to the war with the feeling of being torn apart and hurried to join Celena.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0009"><h2>9. Chid</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>The sun was hitting hard. His vision blurred, Miguel could barely see the slim figure of Celena drawing away and away. The girl didn’t feel tiredness, it seemed, exactly like her brother. No matter the weather or the time of day, her steps were even.</p>
<p>But the boy didn’t have that endurance. He was dried out and his feet hurt him terribly. He had removed his leather jacket that he carried on his arm.</p>
<p>He closed his eyes only one moment and focused on the only thing that his boiled brain could understand: to keep walking.</p>
<p>He opened his eyes just before bumping into Celena. She handed him her goatskin.</p>
<p>Miguel had emptied his own flask long ago but hers was full.</p>
<p>Celena sat down and pulled out of her knapsack two small breads wrapped in a white cloth. Those were made of the cereals they had found in the shepherd house. They had almost no taste but Miguel gobbled them with tears of gratefulness.</p>
<p>‘I could carry you,’ Celena said while he was catching his breath.</p>
<p>‘It won’t be necessary.’</p>
<p>‘At least remove your boots, I’ll lend you mine.’</p>
<p>Miguel looked at her sandals, then at his boots and made a face.</p>
<p>‘I don’t wanna take them off.’</p>
<p>The idea of tearing his skin off along with the leather hurt even more his feet covered with blisters.</p>
<p>‘You’re right. Shall we find shadow?’</p>
<p>‘No, just a moment and we can go.’</p>
<p>Celena smiled.</p>
<p>Miguel remembered a boy who had got a sliver of metal in his brain during the explosion of his guymelef. After that he had remained amnesiac and silent, only smiling dumbly when someone called his name.</p>
<p>Celena’s totally expressionless face or her empty smile reminded Miguel of that boy. However there was something different between them, for the boy hosted life. His body was filled with warm blood in spite of his absent gaze. But Celena’s body seemed as empty as her eyes, and, in the hot dusty air of the desert, she seemed about to crumble into dust too.</p>
<p>***</p>
<p>‘Is it a draconian temple?’</p>
<p>Miguel watched with incredulity a dragon statue in the eye. A little further away the pieces of a broken wing were spread at the feet of the stone lady to whom it had belonged. The white walls were swept by the winds which resonated like mysterious voices. The sun burnt harshly the exposed streets, but inside the few preserved alcoves it was cold and dark.</p>
<p>‘No, it’s more recent,’ Celena replied, ‘I’d say it is an ancient Freiden temple built after the disappearance of the draconian people, maybe in homage to them. But this place had been abandoned decades ago.’</p>
<p>She put down her bundle in the shadow of a chapel.</p>
<p>‘I’m going to Fortona Temple to find local clothes for you,’ she said pointing at the small city below.</p>
<p>‘You can find some for you too,’ Miguel retorted staring at her green dress.</p>
<p>‘My clothes are fine.’</p>
<p>‘You look strange.’</p>
<p>‘Will I look less strange if I wear Freiden outfit?’</p>
<p>This being said she disappeared behind a column.</p>
<p>***</p>
<p>When she entered Fortona Temple the evening light wrapped her with the warm colours of the place: brown and ochre that gave her the appearance of a priestess of older times.</p>
<p>She stopped in front of the main temple and breathed, raising her face toward the cupola of the ancient building. There was something in the air that made her feel alive and she couldn’t deny that the closed doors called her. This place wanted her.</p>
<p>‘Celena! Celena, is that you?’</p>
<p>The girl turned toward the voice. It belonged to Hitomi who was coming from a side street. There was no doubt now that the teenager would acknowledge her resemblance with Dilandau. Celena smiled at the sight of her strange outfit which looked ludicrous in this austere monastery.</p>
<p>The young girl seemed pleased to meet her again for some reason Celena couldn’t explain herself.</p>
<p>‘How have you managed to come to here?’ Hitomi asked, getting near her.</p>
<p>‘I followed the pilgrims’ road,’ Celena simply replied.</p>
<p>‘I’m glad you’ve escaped the battle in Godashim.’</p>
<p>There, Hitomi’s eyes turned sad and Celena repressed desire to comfort her. She felt empathy for the teenage girl who looked like a motherless child, like her, and who couldn’t fit in this world, like her.</p>
<p>‘Do you know that person, Hitomi?’</p>
<p>The little boy who had just spoken was the one Celena had seen a few days before. He was standing on the temple’s front steps, accompanied by a blue eyed woman with fair hair, dressed like a queen and as beautiful as an angel.</p>
<p>Celena was struck by the likeness of their features. In the girl’s eyes, the woman was some kind of canon of beauty of a foreign country where she wouldn’t be a stranger.</p>
<p>‘Prince Chid!’ Hitomi exclaimed, ‘Yes, I’ve already met Celena. She is… Err…’</p>
<p>‘I am a pilgrim, Prince Chid,’ the maiden answered, bowing her head. Her face couldn’t express her surprise to learn that the boy was the heir of Freid.</p>
<p>He seemed pleased with Celena’s answer.</p>
<p>‘Welcome to Fortona Temple. It is our duty to host pilgrims. The Duke is busy now but he will receive you for the traditional interview soon. If you want to come with me I will show you the audience room.’</p>
<p>‘I will be honoured, Prince.’</p>
<p>The four of them headed toward the entrance. They were about to pass the door when a strange cat girl came hurtling.</p>
<p>‘Hitomi!’ she screamed with a high pitched voice, ‘Lord Van is looking for you!’</p>
<p>‘Ah! I’m coming.’ Hitomi looked at Celena who waved at her and entered the hall.</p>
<p>There the blond queen smiled at Celena.</p>
<p>‘I haven’t introduced myself, I am Millerna Aston.’</p>
<p>This wasn’t a big clue for the self-proclaimed pilgrim who bowed her head in answer. However Millerna apologized a few meters later, remembering that she had someone to visit and took leave off them.</p>
<p>Chid opened the door of the audience room. He walked straight to the throne and climbed on it. He then crossed his legs and faced Celena.</p>
<p>The girl was standing, and thanks to the stage and the height of the throne, it happened that the eyes of the little boy and those of the maiden were at the same level. Chid too had common features with Celena, even more than Millerna. It wasn’t only a matter of hair colour.</p>
<p>‘You look like aunt Millerna,’ Chid observed.</p>
<p>His eyes were shining with childish curiosity about the visitor. He seemed eager to ask many questions to her. But the next thing he said was in a more serious tone.</p>
<p>‘I can’t recommend strongly enough that you leave Fortona Temple quickly after the audience. We are not in good terms with Zaibach currently.’</p>
<p>‘I’ve heard of it.’</p>
<p>Chid smiled.</p>
<p>‘Where are you coming from? It’s been a long time since a pilgrim from a foreign country came to here. Did you take the south road?’</p>
<p>‘No I took the north one, the one that follows the ocean shore, and then I took the canyon that lead to Godashim,’ Celena replied.</p>
<p>‘I don’t know this road. Where does it begin?’</p>
<p>‘Zaibach.’</p>
<p>There was a silence.</p>
<p>‘I have to acknowledge that you’re honest,’ the prince finally said.</p>
<p>‘You don’t have to be afraid of me. I have no business with politics or war.’</p>
<p>‘I know. But some people there could be more wary to you.’</p>
<p>Celena suddenly realised that there was no guard, only herself and the prince. Chid was still smiling, following her thought.</p>
<p>‘My caretaker has sacrificed his life to protect my family,’ he explained.</p>
<p>‘Even so, Prince, it is not correct that you meet a stranger without protection,’ Celena stated. She bit her lip, realising that she was talking like General Adelphos.</p>
<p>‘I no longer want to be protected,’ the boy replied, ‘I’ll become strong enough to take care of myself.’</p>
<p>His smile was still there. It wasn’t Celena’s empty smile or the bitter smile of a grown-up but Celena could read the loneliness of the child on it.</p>
<p>‘I have to remind you, Prince, with your permission, that a great king can’t reign alone.’</p>
<p>Chid leant his head, thinking about Hitomi’s prophecy.</p>
<p>Watching the humility on the features of the kid, Celena had no doubt that this prophecy would come true.</p>
<p>Without thinking she knelt, like a man, in spite of his dress.</p>
<p>‘Prince Chid, there is a friend of mine that I have to find now, but I promise to come back and to become your arm. I’ll devote my life to you and I’ll be the best support a King needs.’</p>
<p>‘Thank you Celena.’</p>
<p>Before the words had been said, the girl hadn’t thought that her allegiance could make herself an enemy of her brother. Now this idea amused her.</p>
<p>She heard footsteps and turned toward the door. It was the Duke, who she recognised thanks to his golden helmet.</p>
<p>‘I’m grateful for your word, young pilgrim,’ the man said and he seemed sincere, ‘but Chid is not a king yet.’</p>
<p>As he was talking Chid bowed his head and left the throne to his father. He knelt near Celena during her interview with the Duke.</p>
<p>***</p>
<p>When she left Fortona Temple, Celena’s minds were with Jajuka. But then she remembered that she had to take care of the dragonslayers first, starting with Miguel.</p>
<p>In the small town, she bought clothes to a monk. Here the people spent their time training for war so she had only got the light armour of the monks. Celena could already hear Miguel complaining, saying “I can’t wear this.”</p>
<p>Miguel had been brought up to be uncultivated cannon fodder. But he had happened to be skilled and smart, as Dilandau had quickly noticed. However his promotion had led him to adopt a proud behaviour and to jeopardize his life too much often in Celena’s opinion, and this only for the sake of duty and honour.</p>
<p>Thus were Celena’s thoughts while she was walking towards the ruins of the ancient temple. She was wondering how to convince the stubborn boy to wear the freiden armour before his bright blue uniform would get him in trouble.</p>
<p> But when she arrived she found that Miguel was gone.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0010"><h2>10. Dalet</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>After Celena had left him in the ruins, Miguel had tried resting, at first. But it had become quickly obvious that it was impossible to get to sleep, for he was tormented by too many thoughts.</p><p>He had thus started counting. He had counted Zaibach and Freid forces, for a start, then he had estimated the duration of Godashim’s battle, the time for Folken to decide to head toward Fortona Temple and at last the time necessary for the troops to get there. He had found that they would arrive soon and the idea that his Lord was so close to him had made his legs quiver. He had put back his boots without feeling the pain and had walked straight to the mountain crest. No doubt that Zaibach army would hide behind it in order to attack his enemy by surprise.</p><p>Therefore Miguel reached the crest when the night was about to fall. He kept scrutinising the sky, in the hope of catching sight of the floating vessels. He knew the camouflage was imperfect and that a glimmering could be seen from time to time, especially in the darkness.</p><p>Suddenly the ground started to tremble, imperceptibly at first then more and more violently, and the boy understood that the invisible machines were landing.</p><p>From that moment he hid himself between the rocks while he was walking down the crest. He had to meet Commandant Dilandau and only him.</p><p>When he reached the plain, the foot soldiers had started to pitch the tents. It made his task more difficult for Folken’s fortress, in which was Dilandau as well, was in the centre of the encampment, floating a few meters above the ground.</p><p>Miguel hid at the boarder of the camp and waited for the right moment.</p><p>He was about to make his move when a rough hand fell upon his shoulder. He turned briskly but without his sword he wasn’t able to fight the two men who were pointing their weapons at him.</p><p>‘Who are you? A spy?’ one of them yelled.</p><p>They were wearing Zaibach armour too, but not the same as Miguel’s blue uniform. Their ones were grey and more protective. They were made of many metal pieces which made them look like miniature guymelefs.</p><p>‘I’m not a spy. I have to see my superior,’ Miguel replied as calmly as he could.</p><p>There was no need that his misfortune would be known amongst the army: it would have brought trouble or shame to Dilandau.</p><p>‘Are you kidding us?’ the one who had spoken got irritated. He grabbed Miguel by his collar. ‘You’d better talk!’</p><p>‘Wait,’ the other said, ‘we should bring him to the captain.’</p><p>The man who was holding Miguel turned his head toward his comrade and the boy took the opportunity to twist his wrist. He escaped the grip but the man tripped him up, sending him bite the dust.</p><p>‘What is going on here?’ an authoritative voice asked.</p><p>Miguel raised his face toward Dalet who was looking down at him from all his height.</p><p>‘We’ve caught a spy,’ one of the foot soldiers explained. Both of them stood at attention with uneasiness.</p><p>Dalet turned his eyes toward the man who had spoken while his head remained steady.</p><p>‘A spy.’ he snapped.</p><p>‘Dalet it’s me! I’m alive!’ Miguel exclaimed faintly.</p><p>‘I can see that.’ the other retorted curtly.</p><p>‘You know each other? We’ve just seen him spying on our camp!’</p><p>‘Yes he is a spy,’ Dalet replied in the same tone as before, ‘he spies for Zaibach army.’</p><p>‘If he is spying for us, then why is he wearing that bright blue uniform? This is stupid!’</p><p>‘Sure it is,’ Dalet scowled at Miguel. ‘I’m not here to answer your questions,’ he said to the soldiers, ‘if you have any you can ask directly our superior, Commandant Dilandau.’</p><p>The two men looked at each other quite worriedly.</p><p>‘Now if you excuse me I have to talk with him.’</p><p>The soldiers chose to draw back piteously.</p><p>‘Dalet! I have to see Commandant Dilandau!’</p><p>For the first time Dalet’s impassive mask broke and a small sarcastic smile appeared on his lips.</p><p>‘If Commandant Dilandau sees you he’s gonna kill you.’</p><p>‘What?’</p><p>‘You failed him. And now you are a deserter.’</p><p>‘I know. That’s why I have to talk to him, to set things straight!’</p><p>‘That’s not the right moment.’</p><p>‘But…’</p><p>‘Listen, I will speak to Commandant Dilandau in your favour. But right now you’d better keep away from him. Moreover you’re not presentable.’</p><p>Miguel scratched his head. His hair was sticky and covered with dust, like the rest of his body, and his uniform was in a worse state. He had noticed that Dalet stayed a safe distance away from him.</p><p>‘Alright.’</p><p>‘Tomorrow night we’ll meet on the top of the crest. And don’t get in trouble in the meantime. I’m happy that you’re still alive and I don’t want you to disappear once more.’ This said with a cold and angry tone was the nicest thing that Dalet had ever said to Miguel.</p><p>***</p><p>Miguel reached the ancient temple before the dawn. He was more exhausted and cold than ever.</p><p>A pleasant odour came from the ruins and Celena’s smile welcomed him.</p><p>She handed him a steaming bowl and a spoon.</p><p>‘I’m trying local cooking. You’ll tell me if it’s good.’</p><p>Miguel guzzled a spoonful of the strange mixture with gratefulness.</p><p>‘Spicy?’</p><p>‘Spicy.’</p><p>Miguel had to wait that the fire in his mouth calms down a little. ‘But good.’</p><p>‘What have you been doing?’ she asked, pleased to see him eating with appetite.</p><p>‘That’s not your business.’ he replied while chewing the ochre-coloured mash.</p><p>Celena chuckled low.</p><p>‘You haven’t seen Dilandau,’ she guessed.</p><p>‘I have to meet Dalet in the crest tomorrow night.’</p><p>‘How will you go there?’</p><p>‘I’ll walk.’</p><p>‘You’d better rest today, then. And I hope you plan to get rid of that conspicuous uniform. Look what I’ve brought to you!’</p><p>Miguel sniffed.</p><p>‘I’m not gonna wear a Freiden armour.’</p><p>‘Don’t be childish. It’s already lucky that you haven’t been mistaken for a spy by your own army.’</p><p>The boy bit his tongue by accident. He raised his nose up in the air with disdain.</p><p>‘I’m smarter than you think.’</p><p>‘Just wear it.’</p><p>‘It’s stupid. I won’t be credible in Freiden outfit. My skin is too pale.’</p><p>‘The prince of Freid has a fair skin,’ Celena replied, ‘actually fairer than yours. I wonder where it comes from. Anyway he is very cute.’</p><p>‘What? That brat?’</p><p>‘You’ve seen him?’</p><p>‘I was under hypnosis. That poor boy was so sorry when I said Allen was a traitor.’</p><p>‘Who is Allen?’</p><p>‘Some stupid knight from Asturia.’</p><p>‘Asturia?’</p><p>The girl would have liked to keep talking but she noticed that Miguel was muttering to himself, preoccupied by his own thoughts.</p><p>***</p><p>Miguel was always struck by his recovery abilities. He had got the time to wash before going to the crest, and even after the ascent he felt quite clean.</p><p>He was watching the land at his feet, slightly panting because of the effort. Even though the night was cold and the Freiden uniform let a large part of his skin uncovered he could stand it. The pain in his feet and legs was still there but it would no longer prevent him from acting.</p><p>The landscape around him was beautiful and quiet and a fresh breeze tousled his hair. It had been a long time since he had been so serene and confident in his body and skills.</p><p>‘Hey Miguel!’</p><p>Dalet emerged from the darkness.</p><p>‘Dalet! I’m glad to see you.’</p><p>‘Here for you,’ the long-haired boy handed him packet. ‘Pilgrim clothes. Better than a Freiden uniform.’</p><p>Miguel bit his lips.</p><p>‘Have you got the opportunity to talk with Commandant Dilandau?’</p><p>‘Yes, he is favourable to your return in the squad,’ Dalet said and rubbed his reddish cheek. ‘But as I told you, you are a deserter. He cannot reinstate you just like this. We’ve made a plan. Here are his instructions.’</p><p>Miguel lowered his gaze toward the letter in Dalet’s hands and became pallid.</p><p>‘He knows I cannot read, right?’</p><p>Dalet nodded.</p><p>‘And you’re not allowed to read it to me?’</p><p>Dalet nodded with a sharp movement.</p><p>‘It’s your only chance. You should be happy to have one.’</p><p>‘I am.’</p><p>Miguel took the letter.</p><p>‘I hope to see you soon, then,’ Dalet said and walked away.</p><p>***</p><p>‘It hasn’t come off well,’ Celena observed when Miguel joined her in the run down temple.</p><p>‘I need your help.’</p><p>Celena didn’t have to see his face to measure how much effort it coasted him to ask for help.</p><p>‘Could you read this for me?’</p><p>The maiden turned her empty gaze toward the sheet and fell silent for a second.</p><p>‘I can’t read,’ she let drop.</p><p>‘Really?’ Miguel was more surprised than upset.</p><p>He let himself fall on the ground. ‘How am I gonna do?’ he mumbled, sticking his chin on his fists.</p><p>‘Here,’ Celena handed him something wrapped in a cloth. ‘It’s meatballs in bread, a local speciality.’</p><p>‘Where did you get this?’</p><p>‘A preacher came to the temple. I told him I was a pilgrim and he offered it to me.’</p><p>Miguel stared oddly at her.</p><p>‘Who are you?’ he asked in a reproachful tone. ‘You become a commandant in Zaibach army in no time and let drop your office from one day to the next. And no one cares! You travel in countries at war without getting in trouble. You wander wherever you want! You even meet the prince of Freid but you can’t read while Lord Dilandau is highly cultivated. And preachers give you food! You’re so…!’ Miguel paused to catch his breath. ‘And that scar… Seriously, you creep me out.’</p><p>In answer he only got Celena’s terribly empty smile.</p><p>She stood up. ‘I have to go to Fortona Temple.’</p><p>***</p><p>The sun was rising when Celena walked out of the high rampart of Fortona Temple.</p><p>Just like every night since she had arrived in the region she had slipped into the guymelef hangar and had continued her sabotage work. The giant sword of the Escaflowne was made of an unknown material to her, the harder than she had ever touched.</p><p>However that night of work was the last, for now the blade was just solid enough to stand a limited number of blows.</p><p>The path to the ruins went through a small wood, almost the only trace of vegetation in the area. Here it was still dark, but that didn’t prevent Celena from walking briskly.</p><p>The bushes cracked on her left and a pale face was visible a split second in the moonlight before hiding in the shadow.</p><p>‘Dalet! You don’t have to run, I’m Celena.’</p><p>The boy went out of the undergrowth, being careful that the branches didn’t damage his civilian outfit.</p><p>‘My respects, madam,’ he said ceremoniously and bowed.</p><p>The girl smiled. It was like talking to Gatti.</p><p>‘I would like to apology for Miguel’s manners,’ the boy went on, ‘he is not used to behave in the presence of a lady.’ </p><p>‘Miguel is fine,’ Celena said with a chuckle. ‘Why are you here?’</p><p>‘I’m looking for Miguel. I have something to give him.’</p><p>‘I can deliver it to him.’</p><p>‘I would be grateful, madam.’</p><p>Dalet took out a big book out of his bag. Celena looked at the cover: it was an alphabet.</p><p>‘Is it from Dilandau?’ she asked and took it in her hands.</p><p>‘No it’s from me. I borrowed it to Chesta. Commandant Dilandau allowed me to bring it to Miguel.’</p><p>‘That’s nice of you.’</p><p>‘We are all grateful to you that you saved him.’</p><p>‘It’s fine. You have to be courageous to have pleaded Miguel’s cause in front of my brother.’</p><p>Dalet briefly touched his cheek which still stung a little.</p><p>‘It’s better for everyone.’</p><p>‘Honestly I didn’t plan helping Miguel with that. I thought he should take the opportunity to leave the army.’</p><p>‘Madam! With all due respect I find your words shocking. One can’t leave Commandant Dilandau’s service.’</p><p>‘I’ve understood that,’ Celena smiled. She wanted to keep teasing the boy but he took the thing too seriously.</p><p>‘How is Dilandau?’ she asked instead.</p><p>‘He was shocked after being wounded. But now he seems to be better.’</p><p>The boy didn’t mention Celena’s scar and he hadn’t shown any surprise when he had seen her face in the dim light of the moon. Although Dalet observed a highly respectful behaviour and tone, Celena discerned in his eyes traces of the same disgust that Miguel had showed her. She wasn’t offended because she knew it was due to lack of understanding and fear. She had seen that gaze on Dilandau’s face once, and it had hurt for it was the first time.</p><p>‘And how are your comrades and you?’</p><p>‘We are fine, thank you for caring. Guimel said he misses you.’</p><p>‘What about Folken?’ Celena felt happy while mentioning the mysterious tall man.</p><p>‘He is true to himself.’</p><p>‘Alright then. Be well Dalet, and don’t worry too much about Miguel. He’ll manage.’</p><p>‘Thank you ma’am. I wish you good fortune,’ the young soldier replied and bowed.</p><p>They parted in the night, one following the traced path and the other sinking in the scrub.</p><p>***</p><p>Celena found Miguel sat near the hearth, staring fixedly at Dilandau’s letter, frowning but without batting an eyelid, and brushing the letters with his index.</p><p>He didn’t react to Celena’s arrival until she put the alphabet under his nose.</p><p>‘From Dalet.’</p><p>Miguel opened wide eyes, looking at the thick book like if it was an angel come down from heaven.</p><p>‘Oh yes, I remember that stuff! Chesta was trying to learn reading.’</p><p>‘Are you gonna read the letter with just that book?’</p><p>‘It’s fine. I just need peace.’</p><p>Indeed Dalet’s and Miguel’s manners were quite different, but Celena liked that cheeky tone of the boy. And it was probably Dilandau’s case too.</p><p>She lay down to rest a little further away.</p><p>It took the entire morning for Miguel to understand the alphabet. He should have succeeded more quickly but he was tired from his sleepless night.</p><p>Therefore in the early afternoon he started to read the letter, only disturbed by the light snoring of Celena and the gurgling of his own stomach begging for food.</p><p>After having read the first sentence, he understood that the letter wasn’t at his address and that succeeding in reading it was only the first test for winning his return in the dragonslayers squadron.</p><p>***</p><p>‘Do you know Refina, the commandant of the Salamander squadron?’ was Miguel’s first question when Celena woke up.</p><p>‘Yes, she had been very nice to me.’</p><p>‘I need to meet her, without going through General Adelphos.’</p><p>‘I see. We’ll head to headquarters, then.’</p><p>Miguel stood on his feet, ready to go at once.</p><p>‘Wait, you need to rest,’ Celena stopped him.</p><p>She took a piece of paper out of her pocket.</p><p>‘Could you read that too, please?’</p><p>Miguel took the sheet and tried to decipher. It was the drawing of a strange machine with hand-written pieces of text here and there. The boy frowned while he enumerated the syllables of the first paragraph:</p><p>‘Fo-r-the-se-co-nd-par-t-of-fa-te-al-ter-a-tion-ex-pe-rim-ent. Fir-st-tes-ts-on-hum-an…’</p><p>Celena snatched the sheet out of Miguel’s hands.</p><p>‘Stop!’</p><p>She softened some and smiled. ‘Sometimes it is dangerous to read too much. Isn’t it Miguel?’</p><p>The young man stared at her, dumbstruck, but this time there was a sort of respect on his face.</p><p>Celena casually scratched her head and sighed.</p><p>‘Geez! I’ll have to learn to read myself!’</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>Thanks for reading! Next chapter coming soon</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0011"><h2>11. Mina</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>There was a strange atmosphere in General Adelphos’ throne room. The high and long windows let a dim light fall on the brown floor and on the stone lion, shaping rectangles of grey light and columns of white dust. The ceiling, as high as cathedral’s cupolas, was plunged in complete darkness, and one was surprise not seeing stars on it.</p>
<p>If the general had been alone, he would have willingly hit his head on the wall, but he wasn’t and he had to restrain himself.</p>
<p>‘I’m very happy to meet your cousin, Refina, but I’m not gonna enlist her in the army,’ he articulated slowly, aware that his voice betrayed his irritation.</p>
<p>He refused to turn his gaze toward the maiden and her awful pink ballgown.</p>
<p>Refina on the contrary looked at her, one arm crossed and poking her cheek with the hand of her other arm.</p>
<p>It was her own dress that her “cousin” was wearing, the dress she had been given for her engagement with Gatti. She had laughed at the top of her lungs when Miguel had brought her Dilandau’s letter. She had enjoyed even more dressing the boy in drag and making him look like a credible maiden. And now his face was priceless. His dark blue eyes were shining between the brown locks of hair of his rig and his fists were clenched on his skirt. Really, she was proud of her job. In this apparel Miguel managed to look cute, avoiding sheepishly gazing at General Adelphos and blushing with the exact same hue as the dress.</p>
<p>‘Please sir,’ he dared to say, looking at the floor. ‘I’d give my life away for my country…’</p>
<p>‘I’ve said no!’</p>
<p>‘I…’</p>
<p>Suddenly Miguel’s sheepish expression broke and he stared at the general. His eyes gleamed with daring and pride, and he forgot to fake a female voice.</p>
<p>‘Let me pass tests, sir! I’ll prove you I can be useful to Zaibach! I can fight any of your men, and I can pilot guymelefs! I can handle sword…’</p>
<p>‘Oh dear!’ Adelphos said aloud, massaging his forehead.</p>
<p>‘I just remember it!’ Refina clicked her fingers. ‘Dilandau has sent me a letter: he has lost a man and he asks me to recommend someone to him! Mina will be perfect! Actually the Vione must land at headquarters soon.’</p>
<p>‘Oh dear.’</p>
<p>Adelphos resisted his desire to sit down. He had to bear defeat standing like a man. There was no way he could compete with the infernal duo formed by Refina and Dilandau, reinforced by that brazen girl.</p>
<p>‘Sir,’ Miguel started again, ‘I’ll take my responsibilities…’</p>
<p>‘I name you officially member of the dragonslayers squadron!’ General Adelphos cut him off.</p>
<p>Miguel gaped, but just after he pulled himself together. He knelt in spite of his crinoline, like a soldier, but the skirt made a circle around him and really, that was an unseemly picture.</p>
<p>Refina scoffed.</p>
<p>‘Please, excuse my cousin, General Adelphos. She hasn’t been raised very well, for a maiden. See? She’ll be better in the army!’</p>
<p>‘You two leave this room now,’ the general said rather quietly but he was twiddling the handle of his sabre.</p>
<p>***</p>
<p>Celena stroked the red leather of Dilandau’s uniform and pinched it. She lay on a wide bed and the empty armour near her was like a snake sloughed skin.</p>
<p>‘Don’t touch that; it’s mine!’ Dilandau shouted form behind a screen.</p>
<p>‘You mean boy! You’ve already lent it to me once.’</p>
<p>‘Because you needed it. And I really believed that you would fight at my side,’ the young man replied, sounding a bit upset.</p>
<p>‘I had told you that I was entering the army to find a sorcerer. Plus you know that I don’t like fighting.’</p>
<p>Dilandau got away from the screen, displaying a pout. He was wearing a brand new uniform, the same as the one on the bed, except for the rigidity and the smell of new. He placed a hand on his hip.</p>
<p>‘What are you gonna wear for the ball?’</p>
<p>Celena pointed at the green dress she was wearing and Dilandau made a face.</p>
<p>‘You look like a country girl with that stuff. You’re gonna embarrass me.’</p>
<p>‘What should I wear then?’</p>
<p>‘Armour.’</p>
<p>‘I’m not allowed.’</p>
<p>‘A dress. Refina can lend you one.’</p>
<p>‘Like the one she gave to Miguel? For sure I’m gonna embarrass you with that!’</p>
<p>Dilandau’s grumpy mouth turned into a smirk.</p>
<p>‘It’s better to look ugly than poor.’</p>
<p>‘That’s your opinion.’</p>
<p>‘Try to mask that scar.’</p>
<p>‘What are you afraid of?’</p>
<p>Dilandau remained silent for a few seconds.</p>
<p>‘Just do it,’ he said in a low voice.</p>
<p>‘Alright.’</p>
<p>She sat up and looked at him. Something strange happened each time their gazes met. They felt a vibration and their eyes stung as if they were staring at the sun.</p>
<p>‘Stop looking at me,’ Dilandau said, keeping eye contact.</p>
<p>‘You stop.’</p>
<p>After a certain point their eyes started to water.</p>
<p>‘You know, that is the only way for us to cry,’ Celena noted, waiting for a tear to drop.</p>
<p>‘What does it matter?’</p>
<p>‘Some people say that tears are the expression of the soul.’</p>
<p>‘Why does it matter?’</p>
<p>They both broke eye contact. Celena wiped her cheek but there was no tear to wipe. Still she could feel a tiny little drop at one corner of her eye.</p>
<p>Dilandau placed himself in front of a stand mirror that was round at the top, both hands on his hips. He couldn’t see his own reflection in it, only a blurred black shape.</p>
<p>‘Where are you gonna go next?’ he asked.</p>
<p>‘Shib’s mountains. Jajuka had family there. Maybe they can help me.’</p>
<p>‘It’s been months you’re after your friend. What do you expect finding there?’</p>
<p>‘Roots.’</p>
<p>Dilandau frowned. He turned to her and hesitated before talking again.</p>
<p>‘What do you say going back inside?’ he said and pointed at the mirror.</p>
<p>He was standing next to it so that Celena could see her own reflection from the bed –just a hazy spot.</p>
<p>The maiden stood up slowly and walked toward the mirror. Then she passed by it and reached the door. She stopped and turned to Dilandau.</p>
<p>‘No. You can go inside if you want,’ she said flatly.</p>
<p>***</p>
<p>‘A ball? You’re really gonna take me to a ball in this outfit? What’s wrong with you?’</p>
<p>‘Watch your language young girl!’ Refina snapped at Miguel.</p>
<p>‘And why so early? At least let me wait in your apartment!’</p>
<p>‘I can’t. Celena Albatou is using it.’</p>
<p>‘I can’t believe Commandant Dilandau is gonna attend… a ball! That’s so stupid! Don’t tell me he wants to go. He cannot lose his time with that!’</p>
<p>‘It’s like this. He doesn’t like it. I don’t like it. General Adelphos hates it. But it’s part of the life in the army.’</p>
<p>‘Unbelievable!’</p>
<p>‘Come on! This time it will be funny. Usually the only women in those parties are the old wives of the officers. No doubt a fresh maiden like you will shake up every guy there!’</p>
<p>***</p>
<p>‘Is that one alright?’ Celena got away from a screen, wearing a simple white dress.</p>
<p>‘Not white dammit! You’re not going to your wedding,’ Dilandau retorted. Sat on Refina’s bed, his chin in his hands and his elbows on his knees, the young man displayed his most grouchy face.</p>
<p>‘Why are you so mad now?’ the girl asked. ‘Is it your interview with General Adelphos who put you in that mood?’</p>
<p>‘He doesn’t want to change all the guymelefs of my squad.’</p>
<p>‘What’s wrong with the old ones?’</p>
<p>‘They’re in pieces.’</p>
<p>‘What? Who did that?’</p>
<p>In answer Dilandau looked at the floor and rubbed his scar. Celena brushed hers too.</p>
<p>‘Are the dragonslayers alright?’</p>
<p>‘Those incompetents!’ the young officer got irritated, ‘They’ve got the best guymelefs! They’ve got invisibility abilities! And they’re unable to defeat one single brat? The hell with them!’</p>
<p>‘Are they alright?’</p>
<p>‘Yes, they’ve got only bruises.’ He paused and frowned. ‘It was strange… It was like the Escaflowne sword wasn’t as sharp as it should have been. It distorted the alseides instead of cutting them.’ He looked at Celena with a mix of sheepishness and curiosity. ‘And… if the sword hadn’t broken in the middle of the fight I think… I think they would all have… died?’</p>
<p>‘It’s lucky then.’</p>
<p>‘Lucky? Yes, maybe…’ Dilandau stared suspiciously at the maiden while she got behind the screen. For the first time it bothered him that she was expressionless, inscrutable.</p>
<p>***</p>
<p>The dragonslayer’s squadron was walking in the dark corridor leading to the ballroom. They could see the light of the crystal chandeliers at the end of it and they heard a faint metallic music from a barrel organ.</p>
<p>They were dressed up to the nines, having cleaned their uniforms, forgotten their bruises, freshly washed and shaven. It had been a long time since they had felt that pretty, but when they entered the ballroom, finding themselves in the middle of formal dressed and perfumed officers they felt like hicks. However the sight of Miguel’s pink spot next to Refina’s long figure cheered them up.</p>
<p>Miguel turned crimson.</p>
<p>‘Shit, they’re coming this way,’ he mumbled.</p>
<p>‘Do I have to chaperon you or you can meet your squad by your own?’ Refina retorted.</p>
<p>‘You can go.’</p>
<p>‘No, I don’t want to miss that.’</p>
<p>Chesta was walking ahead of the others, smiling brightly.</p>
<p>‘Mi… na! I’m happy to see you!’</p>
<p>Miguel pinched the cheek of the blond boy right on a bruise.</p>
<p>‘Have you tumbled down the stairs, guys? You look like you’ve just got out of a hole.</p>
<p>‘Don’t be mean, we haven’t even start to bully you,’ Ryuon scoffed.</p>
<p>‘Well, well,’ a feminine voice was heard behind them.</p>
<p>Two leopardgirls had silently come near them. They were Folken’s henchwomen, his bodyguards and devoted souls. They were in armour, like Refina, but their ones were as light as dance leotards, letting their long legs bare and fitting closely the shape of their blooming bodies, causing a lot of murmurs and emotions among the boys.</p>
<p>‘You here? I thought you never attended those kind of receptions,’ Ryuon was surprised.</p>
<p>‘We want to see Dilandau’s sister,’ said Naria, the silver haired girl.</p>
<p>‘And his new recruit,’ Eriya added, fiddling in her golden hair and eying Miguel from top to bottom.</p>
<p>‘Will you be able to fight with that pretty dress, little girl?’ Naria teased him and leant her elbow on Miguel’s shoulder. This time the boy’s repartee abandoned him.</p>
<p>‘So, ladies,’ Ryuon said and smiled boldly, ‘one of you is up for a dance?’</p>
<p>They laughed at him.</p>
<p>‘Nice try but I’ll pass!’ Eriya scoffed.</p>
<p>‘Really?’ the tall blond guy insisted, ‘none of us tempt you?’</p>
<p>‘Hmm, well,’ Naria said, playing with Miguel’s curls, ‘there was that cute boy, what was his name already? Miguel? I would have liked to flirt with him. Too bad the poor boy died.’ She pinched him when she caught him looking at her breasts, then the two sisters and Refina drew away to talk together.</p>
<p>Gatti came in front of Miguel, bowed, and very elegantly offered him his hand.</p>
<p>‘May have I this dance, Miss?’</p>
<p>‘Stop that! You’ll regret it,’ the other replied between his gritted teeth.</p>
<p>‘General Adelphos is looking that way. Don’t draw attention on yourself.’</p>
<p>Miguel cast a glance at the group of officers to check: indeed the general was watching him rather suspiciously.</p>
<p>‘I can’t dance.’</p>
<p>‘Just take my hand.’</p>
<p>Miguel finally complied and he was like magically driven at Gatti’s side. He held his head high, ignoring the snickering of his comrades.</p>
<p>The first dancers were taking place on the dance floor, and indeed they were old ladies with old officers. Beside them the boy was quite proud of his partner and of being able to wear a sleeveless dress without having his arm skin hanging and flapping at each step.</p>
<p>The dance started. Miguel felt himself floating above the floor while they turned at the pace of the music. He had no idea how to stop or keep spinning. The world around him was blurred, and the only rooted element was Gatti’s arm, steadier than he would have imagined.</p>
<p>At first he avoided looking at his comrade but he couldn’t ignore for long the clear blue eyes staring at him.</p>
<p>‘I’m happy that you’re back,’ the blond boy said.</p>
<p>‘I had to come back,’ Miguel retorted, raising his eyes heavenward, ‘Commandant Dilandau was furious after you were defeated. You guys are worthless.’</p>
<p>Gatti’s face darkened for a split second, then he smiled.</p>
<p>‘I’m having a good time. Don’t ruin it,’ he replied. His gaze ran on Miguel’s clothes. ‘I remember that dress.’</p>
<p>‘What?’</p>
<p>‘Refina received it for our engagement. For the ceremony.’</p>
<p>‘Really?’</p>
<p>‘Yes, she threw it at my face.’</p>
<p>‘You’re kidding me!’</p>
<p>Gatti displayed a twisted smile.</p>
<p>‘She wasn’t aiming at me. I just arrived at the wrong moment.’</p>
<p>Miguel chuckled before asking: ‘And then? How was the ceremony?’</p>
<p>‘It was postponed. Till Refina would leave the army.’</p>
<p>‘Not tomorrow, I guess.’</p>
<p>Although they were still spinning and the background was still blurry, they could feel a change in the atmosphere. The music slowed down and all the faces turned toward the newcomers.</p>
<p>They arrived side by side. Celena didn’t hold Dilandau’s arm, unlike General Adelphos’ sister –a tall rough woman who squeezed her brother’s arm in her long fingers. Celena was wearing a light pale green scarf and an iron belt of a deeper green placed on the white dress that Dilandau had scorned. It was impossible to say which one of them was the more handsome, but the bloody colour of the armour next to the immaculate dress made quite an impression on the crowd.</p>
<p>They walked to the centre of the room and the music had to follow them while they began to dance, mesmerizing the whole people. They didn’t touch each other, although they were pretty much close and fast. It was like a joust, and at the same time they displayed a grace never seen before.</p>
<p>Most of the dancers had to stop, hypnotised by the sight or because the music was too fast.</p>
<p>Miguel could no longer see around him. He clung to Gatti not to fall, actually impressed by his comrade’s skills as a dancer.</p>
<p>The dance and the music eventually stopped but Miguel didn’t notice it for his head was still turning at full speed.</p>
<p>‘See? You dance very well for a first time,’ Gatti noted.</p>
<p>‘Don’t take me there,’ Miguel said when he understood they were heading to the group of dragonslayers. He still needed Gatti’s help to keep his balance.</p>
<p>‘Why? I think Ryuon is waiting for his turn. Or maybe you’d prefer try your luck with the officers? It seems like you caught the eye of a bunch of them!’</p>
<p>‘No, I have to talk to Celena.’</p>
<p>Suddenly she appeared in front of him, away from Dilandau.</p>
<p>‘Miss…’ Miguel gaped before finding his words. ‘I have to thank you, I’m very grateful to you.’</p>
<p>Celena’s smile fluttered on her face and then the sight was replaced by Dilandau’s grumpy face.</p>
<p>‘Sir! Thank you…’ Miguel collected himself enough to notice that General Adelphos was close to them, ‘…for giving me my chance. I’ll be worthy of your trust!’</p>
<p>Dilandau’s face softened. He was still excited after his thrilling dance, although he wasn’t out of breath nor sweating.</p>
<p>‘Good,’ he only said.</p>
<p>There was no trace of mockery in Dilandau’s attitude, Miguel mused while Gatti led him to the dragonslayers. Actually the boy wasn’t sure that his commandant had made him wear drag to humiliate him. He turned his head toward Dilandau and Celena. Adelphos had joined them, and if the general-in-chief had been mad at the girl for her desertion he now seemed pleased to meet her again.</p>
<p>‘Gatti,’ Miguel asked, ‘was it Commandant Dilandau’s idea to put me in drag?’</p>
<p>‘Dalet told me that the commandant asked him to find a way to reinsert you and to make you feel miserable at the same time,’ the other boy replied.</p>
<p>‘So it was your idea!’ Miguel exclaimed and walked straight toward the long brown haired boy.</p>
<p>Dalet lifted gracefully his hand: ‘May have I this dance, Miss?’</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0012"><h2>12. Ryuon</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Celena was wearing once more her old green dress that Dilandau despised. However the light clothing looked still brand new.</p>
<p>This time the girl added a thick fur cloak and fur boots. Then she put up at her belt the thin dagger that Dilandau was holding out to her.</p>
<p>‘So you’re ready to go?’ he asked. ‘Are you sure you don’t want more luggage?’</p>
<p>‘I’ll be fine.’</p>
<p>‘Alright then. I’ve charged Ryuon to take care of the provision.’</p>
<p>‘It’s nice of him to accompany me.’</p>
<p>‘I’ve ordered him so. It’s not right to let you travel alone. You’ll see, he is good, strong and easy going.’</p>
<p>They walked out of the building and found Ryuon outside. He too was dressed for a ride in the mountains, and was carrying a huge backpack.</p>
<p>Celena insisted that they share the burden and they both ended up with a smaller bag. Celena waved at Dilandau and Ryuon saluted. The boy was the only one of the squadron taller than Dilandau and thus than Celena.</p>
<p>The young officer watched them drawing away in the cold morning wind for a while. The pale sun made their undulating blond hair shine gently and Dilandau couldn’t help but feeling a dash of jealousy. They seemed to form a strong couple, a canon of beauty of an ancient race, like on the frescos of the Draconian civilisation. Usually the young man should have been disappointed that they waste their strength and youth in wandering instead of serving their country. But this time he felt a bitter-sweet happiness that they escaped the grip of the ones in power and walked their way, drawing their own destinies.</p>
<p>***</p>
<p>Ryuon proved himself a reliable and silent fellow. He was almost as resistant as Celena so they travelled fast. They reached Shib’s mountains in few days and started an ascent in the craggy paths that met torrents and crevasses every now and then.</p>
<p>They met no living beings, except for the birds, tiny rodents and obstinate bushes clinging on the rocks and waving their branches above the empty space. Then they arrived at the altitude where snow covered the entire landscape and Ryuon was the first to discover an Eleidel, the only flower that grew up there, spreading her delicate petals all year long. They both had that sensitive trait about the little treasures they could find in the folds of the mountain.</p>
<p>They didn’t need to rest long, thus they kept walking few hours after the sun had disappeared behind a peak, finding slowly their way in the half darkness, and woke up before dawn. It was during those short laps that Ryuon was the most talkative.</p>
<p>The first time Celena heard him muttering in his sleep he was complaining about the coldness, cursing the gods of winter for having settled in the majestic crests. The following nights he talked also of his life in the army, his comrades and the trainings. Then he started to tell tales, from the start to the end, as if speaking to children.</p>
<p>One night that the Mystic Moon was big and round, slightly hidden by a peak, Ryuon talked about Celena’s first appearance in the Vione. He had first commented the use of the communal showers aboard the floating fortress and the lack of intimacy which bothered some of his comrades. Then he described how Celena walked in the hallway and how the dragonslayers mistook her for their commandant. (Except for Guimel). He narrated with much detail the duel between Dilandau and the maiden and the amazement of each soldier.</p>
<p>A short while later, Celena was awaken by the silence. Ryuon was no longer next to her. She found him sat on the edge of the rocky crest, watching the sea of clouds below, elegantly backlit by the moons.</p>
<p>‘May I sit with you?’ she asked.</p>
<p>He smiled in answer, with his usual discretion.</p>
<p>‘Are you missing your comrades?’ Celena resumed, ‘I’m sorry you had to leave your squad because of me. And to be taken away from Dilandau.’</p>
<p>‘It’s fine,’ the young man replied. Celena thought it was all she would get for answer, but he went on after a pause: ‘I don’t really miss them. I’m complying with Commandant Dilandau’s orders and somehow I feel like being with you is the same as being with him. Plus I love this place.’</p>
<p>‘But it’s cold.’</p>
<p>Ryuon grinned.</p>
<p>‘It is, eh! Beauty is known to be well protected, like the rose and its thorns.’</p>
<p>Celena didn’t need explanation to understand the metaphor also applied to Dilandau.</p>
<p>‘You don’t seem to have thorns, Miss, do you?’ he asked with a trace of mischief.</p>
<p>‘Not that I know of,’ she said and shrugged.</p>
<p>‘I hardly believe you,’ the other replied, ‘you hide them.’</p>
<p>‘<i>Or maybe I don’t need them</i>,’ Celena thought inwardly. ‘What about you, Ryuon?’ she asked aloud, ‘I don’t see your thorns.’</p>
<p>‘Well,’ the young man watched his big gnarled hands hanging between his knees, ‘I have those fists.’</p>
<p>‘You’re strong,’ Celena agreed, ‘but that’s not what I’d call “thorns”.’</p>
<p>‘I can be mean with my comrades when we provoke each other.’</p>
<p>‘With Miguel?’</p>
<p>‘Most of the time.’</p>
<p>‘You mean those cute insinuations and sex jokes?’</p>
<p>‘With respect, Miss, how would you know?’</p>
<p>‘Dilandau heard you a couple of times.’</p>
<p>‘But you aren’t Commandant Dilandau. Does he tell you everything?’</p>
<p>There was a silence.</p>
<p>‘Kind of,’ Celena replied.</p>
<p>‘Uh? Have you a sort of telepathic twin link? I’ve heard of stuff like that.’</p>
<p>The girl chuckled, mouth close.</p>
<p>‘That would be funny,’ she said.</p>
<p>‘The two of you seem very close,’ Ryuon said, smiling gently,’ that’s really nice to see. I mean, your relation is truly beautiful.’</p>
<p>Celena remained expressionless and steady for a few second. Maybe because Ryuon was a silent person or maybe because he had never stared oddly at her, she dared to speak openly.</p>
<p>‘Actually he doesn’t need to talk to me,’ she said. ‘We do talk a lot, but that’s not all. If I am curious about some part of his life I discover it. His memories become my own memories. Just because I look for them.</p>
<p>Ryuon stopped smiling.</p>
<p>‘And… Does he have the same access to you memories?’</p>
<p>‘Hmm, that’s a good question,’ the girl replied and smiled briefly. ‘He doesn’t seem to know what I have done or where I have been. But I think he could. Maybe he doesn’t want to know.’</p>
<p>Ryuon nodded.</p>
<p>‘Well, it’s almost dawn, now,’ he said, ‘we should go.’</p>
<p>***</p>
<p>When the sun rose above the white crest that same morning they discovered strange traces on the ground. Those were the huge footprints of some quadruped in the fresh snow. In the middle there was a wide trail, as if the creature had been dragging something along its way.</p>
<p>They followed the traces because it was their way and a while later they heard high-pitched screams. A little further away they found the source of the cries.</p>
<p>They saw a dragon walking slowly near the riverbank, its tail hanging down to the ground, and they spotted two balls of fur hiding on a high rock. There was a pale grey one and a white one; two dogchildren afraid of the massive creature.</p>
<p>The grey dogkid pointed at Celena and Ryuon: ‘Look! They’re gonna be eaten!’</p>
<p>‘Don’t worry,’ the soldier returned. ‘This dragon is not dangerous.’</p>
<p>‘Are you stupid?’</p>
<p>‘It’s fine,’ Celena confirmed with a smile, ‘it’s a very old dragon. It is looking for a place to die alone in this mountain.’</p>
<p>Indeed the dragon ignored them, keeping walking slowly, one step after another. It was focused on its goal, well aware of its fate, and putting all its energy and determination in the last paces of its life.<br/>Celena watched him walking along the riverside and disappear at a bend.</p>
<p>‘Come on kids,’ Ryuon said, stretching his arms toward them, ‘climb down.’</p>
<p>He received the children one by one and put them on the ground. They were about six years old, with rounded faces and pointy ears.</p>
<p>They looked warily at the grownups, their dark shining eyes planted in their fair soft fur. Celena was afraid that a single gesture or word might make them run away and merge in the snowy landscape. Ryuon on the contrary was pretty much relaxed.</p>
<p>‘You don’t seem lost, kiddos, do you come from a village nearby?’ he asked quietly.</p>
<p>The tone of the tall guy soothed the children, although they were impressed by his height.</p>
<p>‘Why?’ the white one –who seemed to be the younger– asked daringly.</p>
<p>‘We are looking for someone who comes from Shib’s mountains,’ Ryuon replied, ‘he is a friend of Miss Celena.’</p>
<p>The girl nodded.</p>
<p>‘His name is Jajuka.’</p>
<p>The dogchildren looked at each other.</p>
<p>‘Wait here,’ the grey one stated, and the two of them disappeared in the crevices of the mountain, climbing on the rocks instead of following the path.</p>
<p>***</p>
<p>The night had just fallen when an old dogman walked down the mountain and took place near the fire built by Ryuon and Celena.</p>
<p>The young people were sat on stones, sharing some beans and dried meat.</p>
<p>‘Those little devils!’ the dogman exclaimed, ‘making me trudge like that!’ He smiled all over his face. ‘So you are little Celena? I expected you to be less tall!’</p>
<p>‘I used to be smaller,’ the maiden replied and returned the smile, ‘it was a long time ago.’</p>
<p>‘A long time ago? You call ten years a long time?’ the other guffawed, his eyes shining with mischief.</p>
<p>‘We are sorry to make you come out,’ Ryuon apologized.</p>
<p>‘Nah, it’s fine. Our children are too much wary of humans. It makes me exercise. I’m Geroka, the chief of the tribe up there.’</p>
<p>‘Are you the one who fought a dragon with bare hands?’ Celena asked, ‘Jajuka told me that story. He said you saved him and other children.’</p>
<p>Again the dogman roared with laughter.</p>
<p>‘Oh that story! He liked it very much. Well, I was young and strong at the time. It wasn’t such a big deal. A young dragon that had lost its way in our mountains. He must be as old as me by now.’ The old beastman turned suddenly serious. ‘Let’s see about you now. Jajuka was here until a week ago, but he has left to find you, Celena.’</p>
<p>The girl displayed her empty smile.</p>
<p>‘Thank you mister.’ She paused. ‘Have your tribe been left in peace since the massive evasion of beast people from Zaibach?’</p>
<p>The chief smiled from ear to ear.</p>
<p>‘Thank you for caring. But let’s not talk about this now. I want to welcome you in our village. Look at that poor boy! He is freezing.’</p>
<p>Ryuon blushed and stood up stiffly.</p>
<p>‘I’m fine sir.’</p>
<p>‘You’re not at the army, lad. Don’t act like this in front of my people.’ For the first time Geroka was frowning. But he soon broke into a broad smile and his eyes shone again. ‘Geez! If you had fur you wouldn’t need to wear that damn uniform!’</p>
<p>He took a burning stick from the fire and showed them the way in the darkness.</p>
<p>***</p>
<p>‘I didn’t know your village was so close,’ Ryuon observed a few minutes later, as they saw the wooden outer wall which protected about twenty huts. ‘What took so long before you came?’</p>
<p>‘That’s on those little imps! They only think about combing the mountainside and having fun! Uh… they had forgotten about you.’</p>
<p>Ryuon laughed gaily, for the first time of his trip, and it was pleasant to hear this vibrant and young laughter.</p>
<p>A dozen of dogchildren were playing on the village square and they dispersed when the three adults crossed it. The two kids that Ryuon and Celena had met on the morning were among them but they didn’t pay much attention to the newcomers.</p>
<p>Geroka showed his guests in a house that belonged to his daughter. In the centre of the main room two dogwomen were busy around a big cauldron hanging above a fire. They imperceptibly stiffened when they saw Ryuon’s uniform.</p>
<p>‘Here is Celena!’ Geroka exclaimed gaily, bursting in the small house, ‘and a friend of her… uh, I don’t know his name.’</p>
<p>‘I’m Ryuon,’ the young man said and bowed to the two women, ‘thank you for welcoming us in your home, ladies.’</p>
<p>‘What a polite boy! Not like you Geroka,’ one of them said. She was a middle age-woman with hair like a lion’s mane.</p>
<p>‘I expected Celena to be smaller,’ the other one said. She was younger and looked pretty much like Geroka.</p>
<p>‘I used to be smaller,’ Celena replied, ‘… not so long ago.’</p>
<p>The old dogman chuckled and plunged a ladle in the cauldron to taste the stew.</p>
<p>‘Hmm, delicious! That’s gonna warm us up!’ he exclaimed, licking the ladle.</p>
<p>He tried to take another ladleful but the lion-like woman hit him with her spatula.</p>
<p>‘Enough you old oaf! It’s not ready yet!’ she roared.</p>
<p>‘What a way to speak to your elder!’ he feigned to be offended.</p>
<p>‘You look for it, Dad,’ his daughter sighed.</p>
<p>Then the dogwomen inquired about Ryuon and Celena’s trip. As the conversation went on Ryon left the hut for he felt cramped.</p>
<p>When the stew was ready the two ladies lifted it as if it weighted nothing and took it outside. There they found Ryuon surrounded by a bunch of children who wanted to touch his smooth skin and impressive muscles, pulling his leather outfit, clinging to his legs and climbing on his shoulders to watch the view from above there.</p>
<p>The young man wasn’t very tall compared to the average of the dogmen but the smallest kids looked at him with big round eyes as if a mountain had grew in their playground. Ryuon wasn’t annoyed in the least by the boisterous children, not even bending under the number. He laughed silently and answered gently to the few of them who dared to ask him questions.</p>
<p>All around, people were coming out from the huts, mostly women and elders, some of them carrying big steaming cauldrons with different smells. Geroka and a younger dogman lit a fire in the middle of the village square, around which the others put their cauldrons.</p>
<p>Then the children and the adults brought each one their own bowl to get served here and there. Geroka’s daughter gave Ryuon and Celena a plate and gave them a portion of her stew.</p>
<p>‘Would it be rude of us not to taste other dishes?’ Celena asked, noticing that some people were served in different cauldrons.</p>
<p>‘Just do what you feel. And come back if you want some more.’</p>
<p>‘Yeah, let yourself be led by the smell!’ said Geroka who had already generously filled up his bowl with every dish. ‘And don’t pay attention to the look. Here the cooks are not good to make nice-looking food.’</p>
<p>‘You can talk!’</p>
<p>A group of rather young dog men came up, silently. They got served and sat apart while the rest of the village took place around the fire.</p>
<p>Soon the children took Ryuon away, taking advantage of the inattention of the grown-ups who were talking together to make a last getaway before bedtime.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0013"><h2>13. Jajuka</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>When the dinner started to come to an end, Celena helped the lion-haired woman to take her cauldron to the small river that flowed behind the village and to clean it.</p>
<p>They had brought no light with them but it didn’t seem to bother the dogwoman –Salinra, as Celena had learnt a bit earlier.</p>
<p>‘I’m surprised,’ Celena said while they both plunged their hands in the icy water, ‘Jajuka has told me that in his clan men and women do the same tasks, with almost no distinction.’</p>
<p>Salinra didn’t reply at first.</p>
<p>‘It used to be like that,’ she muttered, as if talking to herself, ‘but… you know.’</p>
<p>There was a silence.</p>
<p>‘When Zaibach came, around ten years ago,’ she said without looking at Celena, ‘they took the young men. Not the women. ’Cause they thought they weren’t able to fight or whatever. They were only old people, women and children remaining. That’s why women had to do most of the chores, including hunting and protecting the village.’</p>
<p>She pulled the cauldron out of the water and let it dry on the riverside. Then she took a few steps on the path that led higher in the mountain, looking up at the stars.</p>
<p>‘A number of them came back, you’ve seen them tonight. But… They are shadow of themselves. Only Jajuka was quite the same as before. He kept talking about you. He wanted to find you. That’s why he wasn’t shattered, I think. The others… We believe that they were given the charge of children too, but that those ones didn’t survive. And they can’t get over that. They’ve never talked about what happened in Zaibach. Not even Jajuka.’</p>
<p>‘I can tell you a part,’ Celena said.</p>
<p>Salinra turned abruptly toward her, as if only noticing now that the girl was behind her.</p>
<p>‘You… I have to say my feelings are mixed towards you,’ the lion woman said, narrowing her eyes. ‘Thanks to you Jajuka made it through, he came back sound and safe from Zaibach. But you’re the one who take him away from here. He belongs to this place but he left once more to meet that cursed cast of the sorcerers!’</p>
<p>Celena noticed there was more fear than anger in Salinra’s voice.</p>
<p>‘You love him very much,’ she let slip.</p>
<p>The dogwoman shrugged. ‘He was my husband’s nephew. I kind of raised him like my son.’</p>
<p>‘I wish I could tell you that Jajuka will come back here in the end, but we made the promise to live together.</p>
<p>‘I know that,’ the older woman grumbled.</p>
<p>Celena made a move to lift the cauldron but Salinra stopped her by putting her hands on it.</p>
<p>‘There is one more thing that you should know,’ she said, looking the maiden straight in the eye. ‘Zaibach emissaries have come back around ten days ago. They wanted to get back the slaves who had escaped. Then they’ve seen what they look like now, but they still wanted to bring them back. Jajuka made a deal with them. He accepted to obey them and in exchange they promised to leave our village in peace.’</p>
<p>‘That looks like him.’</p>
<p>‘No, it doesn’t. It’s terribly wrong. As a village we are united. We have to decide and to act together. By taking action on his own he betrayed our most ancestral laws. No one would have believed he could do that. We understood later that he did it in order to look for you.’</p>
<p>***</p>
<p>In the morning Celena was attracted out of the hut by screams.</p>
<p>At the village gates the children were jumping and moving about while the grown-ups were hurrying to the doors, looking somewhat concerned.</p>
<p>Ryuon was with the children. Someone had given him a white bear fur which suited him well and hid his uniform. One of the young dogmen whispered a few words in his ear and that was enough for Celena to understand that he had gained the sympathy of most of the villagers.</p>
<p>The little white dogkid that they had met the day before was perched on Ryuon’s shoulders (Celena hadn’t noticed him at first because he merged into the bear fur). The boy jumped on his spot, shouting at the top of his lungs:</p>
<p>‘A dragon is coming! He’s gonna eat us!’</p>
<p>But he was yelling too happily to worry anyone.</p>
<p>‘It’s the dragon from yesterday! It has followed us?’</p>
<p>The head of the said dragon appeared between the gates, next to Geroka.</p>
<p>The adults formed a sort of corridor, more to prevent the children from running in the dragon’s way than to form a guard of honour.</p>
<p>Ryuon walked a little further back and the kids followed him, like flies around a jar of honey.</p>
<p>Geroka and the dragon entered the village which seemed much smaller and fragile around the massive creature. The dragon was imperceptibly panting. It walked even slower than the day before and snow was stuck in its scales.</p>
<p>‘Bring water and food!’ Geroka commanded, short of breath too. ‘Damn kids! Stay away from him!’</p>
<p>While the villagers hurried to bring back the remaining of stews and basins he wiped out the snow from the dragon’s leather skin.</p>
<p>Celena came a little closer.</p>
<p>‘It must be cold,’ she observed.</p>
<p>‘Yeah, rheumatism. I know that,’ Geroka mumbled, ‘Hey kiddos!’ he shouted, ‘go fetch wood to make a fire instead of running under our feet!’</p>
<p>He turned to Celena and grinned. ‘It’s him, the dragon that I fought years ago. He has come back after all this years so that we can make peace.’</p>
<p>The dragon answered by batting its strange horizontal eyelids. It rested its big head on the ground and licked the stew with the tip of its tongue.</p>
<p>‘Make peace…’ Celena muttered to herself, ‘it is wiser than me.’</p>
<p>After a moment the dragon stood on its legs and moved forward; crossing the village to reach the gate of the other side. There it took the path on which Salinra had taken a few steps the previous night. It drew away, for some reason willing to die higher in the mountain.</p>
<p>The kids had already forgotten about it and were busy making a hut in a tree, using Ryuon as a ladder. The adults had come back to their tasks.</p>
<p>‘Well, he’s gone,’ Geroka said simply.</p>
<p>‘This is exactly like in Jajuka’s stories;’ Celena said merrily, ‘this place is suitable for fairy tales and legends.’ </p>
<p>‘Ah, you think?’</p>
<p>Celena chuckled low. ‘Everything is so simple and normal. It’s like things weren’t important.’</p>
<p>‘I’ve never thought the matter over,’ Geroka replied scratching his head. ‘You know, you are welcome to settle here.’</p>
<p>‘I can’t, I have business back in town.’</p>
<p>‘Of course, humans always have.’</p>
<p>Celena got ready to leave. She wondered if Ryuon would like to stay in the village. But he hated cold. And Dilandau came before everything.</p>
<p>The maiden thanked Geroka and his daughter for their hospitality. Then she looked for Salinra. The woman gave her quite a warm goodbye, even patting her shoulder. Then she had a crooked smile, her eyes shining in the half darkness of her hut. Celena deduced that she wasn’t used to smile a lot and returned the smile to encourage her.</p>
<p>‘Don’t misinterpret what I’ve said yesterday,’ Salinra said. ‘We are thankful to Jajuka that our men could stay here. But that’s not the way we want to raise our children.’</p>
<p>‘You do care for your children.’</p>
<p>‘We care for all children.’</p>
<p>***</p>
<p>Celena and Ryuon parted at the foot of the mountain. The young man was ready to accompany her further away but she reminded him that Dilandau had only ordered him to escort her in Shib’s mountains. She knew he would prefer to join his commandant than staying with her, even if they enjoyed each other’s company.</p>
<p>Thus they split their ways, Ryuon heading to the capital of Zaibach and Celena taking an old path in the forest. Thanks to the plan given by Guimel and Miguel’s advices for reading, she knew exactly where she was going. She didn’t stop to rest when the night fell, for she didn’t need it, apparently.</p>
<p>She walked fast, not even sure if she was walking or running. She felt the wind against her face, but not the ground under her feet. On both sides the trees were gently going by, blurred and dark.</p>
<p>A crack.</p>
<p>She stopped, standing on the look-out.</p>
<p>She could sense him, so close. She moved aside the branches on her right and discovered a lagoon, shining with the moonlight. She stepped on the bank, amazed by the fantastic light.</p>
<p>But there was no trace of him.</p>
<p>Maybe her senses had misled her? She heard steps from the trees, a little further away. She turned toward the sound but at this very moment clouds hid the moons and the night went completely dark.</p>
<p>Nevertheless she rushed forward until she bumped into him. She felt his warm, soft fur and she buried her face into it while he was hugging her. They stopped moving, remaining like statues on shore. Celena was in the place she wanted to be, in Jajuka’s arms. There she could become a child again.</p>
<p>***</p>
<p>When the sun rose, they were on their way towards Zaibach’s border. Jajuka wanted to leave the country as soon as possible. They walked side by side, and Celena took his arm from time to time. She had stopped worrying since they had met, letting him in charge of all the decisions.</p>
<p>She hadn’t felt so small for a long time for she was taller than the average of people. But there were very few humans and even beastmen as tall as Jajuka.</p>
<p>‘You have grown stronger, Jajuka,’ she said, palpating the muscles of his arms and looking up at him.</p>
<p>‘Yeah,’ he growled, ‘I’ve trained a lot. With guymelefs too.’ He cast a glance over his shoulder. ‘We are still too close from the laboratory. They must have started to search us by now.’</p>
<p>‘We can run.’</p>
<p>‘It won’t change anything. We need to be discreet.’</p>
<p>‘What if they have dogs to track us?’</p>
<p>‘My comrades won’t betray us.’</p>
<p>‘No, I mean real dogs.’</p>
<p>Jajuka growled and quickened his pace.</p>
<p>***</p>
<p>Dilandau was looking at his reflection in the mirror. All he could see of himself was a dark figure, evanescent, blurred and undulating like black smoke.</p>
<p>He knew what his face looked like because Celena had the same features as him and he had been portrayed. But still he felt frustrated not having a reflection. It was like his existence was questioned. He would have felt special if there wasn’t Celena. But her existence made him feel threatened by this absence in his mirror.</p>
<p>It wasn’t the fear of being rejected or physically attacked by his own kind. It wasn’t like if he had no shadow or no reflection at all. People didn’t notice that his reflection was just a figure. But there was something really wrong about it.</p>
<p>Sometimes he wondered if he could give body and colours to this figure, by touching or incarnating it… He touched the surface of the mirror. It was cold but he wasn’t sure there was a resistance. Maybe he could push his fingers forwards…</p>
<p>He started when someone knocked at the door of his room.</p>
<p>Gatti saluted, staying on the threshold.</p>
<p>‘Ryuon has come back, sir. He pays his respects to you. He accompanied Miss Celena sound and safe at the bottom of Shib’s mountains. She thanks you for allowing him to escort her thus far.’</p>
<p>‘So she isn’t coming back?’</p>
<p>Dilandau would never acknowledge it but he hated when Celena was away from him. And she had been away a lot lately. Paradoxically, without her around it was like if nothing proved his existence.</p>
<p>‘She said she was close to find her friend,’ Gatti replied, ‘she didn’t mention returning.’</p>
<p>Diandau sat on his bed without noticing he was biting the leather of his glove. If this was true, Jajuka and she would leave Zaibach. The dogman would never take the risk that those men would find Celena. Those men… Dilandau didn’t know them. He felt that he could remember them if only he scrutinized his memories, but he didn’t want that. He was scared.</p>
<p>‘Sir…’</p>
<p>‘Thank you Gatti, dismissed,’ Dilandau mumbled absentmindedly.</p>
<p>Gatti stayed dumbstruck on the doorstep, gaping widely.  “Thank you” didn’t belong to the commandant’s vocabulary. He had to be utterly preoccupied.</p>
<p>Gatti took a step back and silently closed the door.</p>
<p>***</p>
<p>The guymelef grated and stopped moving, stabbing its four mechanical pincers in the ground. On the sort of balcony that replaced the head of the huge machine, just above the pilot, four sorcerers were standing, looking down at Celena and Jajuka. Smaller guymelefs surrounded them. They were built with four legs, unlike combat armours.</p>
<p>The girl and the dogman stood close to each other, unmoving too.</p>
<p>‘If you want to follow us, we’d like to show you to our laboratory…’ one of the sorcerers said with a drawl.</p>
<p>Jajuka brought his mouth close to Celena’s ear. ‘I’m gonna create a diversion so that you can escape. Keep talking to them.’</p>
<p>‘No!’ the maiden exclaimed, answering to both of them. ‘And first,’ she looked straight at the sorcerer, ‘how did you find us?’</p>
<p>‘There is a localisation chip in Jajuka’s collar.’</p>
<p>The dogman snarled and Celena pretended to examine the collar.</p>
<p>‘They’re gonna hurt you. I’m the one who’ll create the diversion,’ she muttered in his ear, ‘I know they won’t harm me.’</p>
<p>‘There is no way I let you do that!’ Jajuka growled low.</p>
<p>‘You two stop talking to each other!’ another sorcerer got annoyed. ‘Grab them!’</p>
<p>Jajuka bared his teeth as men came down frown the guymelefs and Celena unsheated Dilandau’s dagger.</p>
<p>‘Don’t start a fight,’ the first sorcerer who had spoken tried to soothe them. ‘There is no need for violence. Jajuka, we’ll forget about your escape. Actually we are glad that you allowed us to discover this problem.’</p>
<p>‘What problem?’ Jajuka asked with a threatening tone.</p>
<p>He snarled at the soldiers who were tightening the circle around them.</p>
<p>‘Celena.’</p>
<p>***</p>
<p>As soon as Gatti had left, Dilandau’s gaze had been caught again by the mirror. Many thoughts were running in his mind but they went too fast so that he could read them entirely.</p>
<p>His hand move forward, as if by itself and penetrated the mirror.</p>
<p>Dilandau started at the contact and jumped backward. He looked at his hand and came closer to the mirror, attracted by an invisible force.</p>
<p>***</p>
<p>‘Did I cause you any problem?’ Celena asked innocently.</p>
<p>‘<i>Now, Celena!</i>’ Jajuka whispered.</p>
<p>‘<i>No!</i>’</p>
<p>‘You didn’t do anything wrong,’ the sorcerer was still talking soothingly, ‘but we weren’t aware of your existence.’</p>
<p>‘But now you are aware, so everything is fine,’ the maiden retorted insolently.</p>
<p>‘That’s not the problem, my dear child…’</p>
<p>Jajuka prepared to bounce and Celena grabbed hold of him with all her strength.</p>
<p>‘Please don’t! I don’t want them to hurt you!’</p>
<p>***</p>
<p>Dilandau could resist this attraction. He was much stronger than it. But he wanted to go. Let drop everything and find… Find what? He wasn’t looking for answers. All he wanted was his buzzing thoughts to disappear.</p>
<p>***</p>
<p>‘That’s enough!’ the dogman roared with anger; ‘I’m gonna smash their faces in!’</p>
<p>‘The problem is that…’</p>
<p>***</p>
<p>Gatti knew something was happening. Something wrong. He had stayed behind Dilandau’s door, waiting. He had heard the bed creaking when Dilandau had stood up but since then it was complete silence.</p>
<p>There was a sound like a bounce and again silence. Unable to wait anymore, he burst in the room.</p>
<p>There he saw the young officer, his back turned, one arm inside the mirror.</p>
<p>‘Commandant Dilandau!’ he yelled, rushing forward.</p>
<p>Without paying attention to him, Dilandau entered the mirror.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0014"><h2>14. Sorcerer</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Warning:  a scene of this chapter involves insanity.</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Dilandau found himself in a dark forest, surrounded by soldiers and holding back Jajuka.</p><p>‘Let me crush them!’ the dogman said in such a deep voice that it was like hearing the earth rumbling.</p><p>The soldiers were wearing uniforms unknown to Dilandau. They came closer and closer. Too close. Dilandau realised he was holding his dagger. He grinned.</p><p>‘The problem is that you shouldn’t exist,’ he heard a cold voice above him.</p><p>His blood ran cold.</p><p>He knew that. For a long time.</p><p>He had pretended to be unaware all these years but he couldn’t really lie to himself. Now he didn’t feel able to face the truth.</p><p>The grasp around Jajuka loosened and the young man slid down. Jajuka caught him before he hit the ground.</p><p>‘Celena?’ The dogman couldn’t believe his eyes.</p><p>‘You should let us take care of her,’ the sorcerer said. ‘Really, there is no need to fight. We’re the only one who can tend to her.’</p><p>Jajuka had to acknowledge they were right for the boy in his arms was white as sheet and he could sense him turning cold.</p><p>***</p><p>***</p><p>***</p><p>Dilandau looked at her in the mirror. He was somehow happy that she was back inside, for that was the most normal state of things for him –at least the first he could remember.</p><p>However he was concerned about what happened during his blackout, after he had fainted in Jajuka’s arms. He remembered the pain, the dazzling light of the operating room and his own screams but it was muddled like in a nightmare.</p><p>The other thing which bothered him was that he had failed to enter the mirror. He had ended up in Celena’s body, and the girl was now in the mirror, after the sorcerers’ intervention.</p><p>She looked even, displaying her strange smile. Dilandau envied her. Although she was stuck behind the mirror, she looked free. That was the reason why the young man had tried to cross it.</p><p>‘I don’t like to see you pouting like this,’ she said. ‘What’s wrong?’</p><p>‘Do you really need to ask?’ he grumbled.</p><p>He paced in the room and thus he could no longer see her. He still had the childish habit to check behind the mirror, having the weird impression that she couldn’t just be in the flat mirror. Aboard the Vione he had discovered the screen through which Folken talked with Dornkirk and he was more at ease with her strange way to appear. The first time he had seen the screen, he had almost thought that Folken was like him. Luckily he had kept his reflections for himself. </p><p>He came back in front of her.</p><p>As a reflection, she behaved quite oddly, although Dilandau couldn’t know, for he had no element of comparison. If he came close to the mirror, she came close too, and if he drew away she drew away too. But she didn’t turn her head when he did, she didn’t copy his expressions and her lips moved freely when she talked.</p><p>‘You really wanted to get in the mirror? It’s quite boring there, you know.’</p><p>Dilandau shrugged. ‘I’m bored here too. Folken took two catgirls to replace my squadron. Just because my men let their guymelefs being destroyed. I could go alone with my alseides but General Adelphos says I’m responsible for my men and I cannot drop them.’ The youth rolled his eyes when he said the last sentence.</p><p>‘Ah, yeah… About that, I have a favour to ask you,’ she said, fiddling in her hair.</p><p>‘What?’</p><p>Dilandau tried to restrain himself from touching his hair too, but in the end he quickly ran his hand through his hair.</p><p>‘I would like you to fire the dragonslayers.’</p><p>‘Are you kidding me?’</p><p>‘No I’m afraid it will end badly for them otherwise.’</p><p>‘That’s not your problem. They are under my command.’</p><p>‘That’s a favour.’</p><p>‘That’s too big! I’m not gonna fire them all just because you’ve got some weird feeling.’</p><p>‘That’s not just a feeling. It’s like the girl from the Mystic Moon has given me some of her powers.’</p><p>‘I don’t buy it.’</p><p>‘Please!’</p><p>‘No.’</p><p>‘You’re pigheaded.’</p><p>‘You too.’</p><p>‘Fine, then I have something else to ask you.’</p><p>‘You can still ask.’</p><p>She smiled.</p><p>‘Bring Pharoe here.’</p><p>The name made Dilandau twitch. Pharoe was one of the head sorcerers. He was the one who had said he shouldn’t exist. He shivered with digust.</p><p>‘I don’t want them to know about you. They’ll want to operate me again.’</p><p>‘It’s alright,’ she replied, still smiling, ‘I know their state of mind.’</p><p>‘Why do you want to see that guy anyway?’</p><p>‘I have questions to ask him.’</p><p>Dilandau tilted his head. He still didn’t want to hear the answers. But this time he wouldn’t be alone. From the very beginning he couldn’t distrust her. She was his alter ego.</p><p>Dilandau was about to ring for Gatti but he stopped his gesture. He didn’t want the boy to go <i>there</i>, in the sorcerers’ lair. He didn’t want any of his men to meet those crows. Although he usually didn’t care much about putting the dragonslayers in danger –that was the life of soldiers– they hadn’t signed up for <i>that</i>.</p><p>‘I’m coming back,’ he said to Celena while heading to the door.</p><p>‘Why don’t you send Gatti?’</p><p>She asked from far away in the mirror.</p><p>‘It’s too dangerous.’</p><p>‘That’s why I told you to fire the dragonslayers.’</p><p>Dilandau shrugged and left the room hastily.</p><p>After the operation, the young officer had called Gatti in and had ordered him to forget what he had seen in his room. That was an order with which only such a disciplined person as Gatti would comply. The boy had assured that he hadn’t talked to anyone about what had happened and Dilandau trusted him, for it was in Gatti’s habit to be discreet and to keep his nose away from other’s business. However the boy had told Dilandau that he would have warned the rest of the squad if his absence had lasted longer (they had been told that he was with the sorcerers only two hours after he had crossed the mirror). Gatti had never been disobedient, but he didn’t hide when he disagreed with his commandant. And this time not only he disagreed with the order to forget, but he also seemed to be mad at Dilandau for refusing to share his troubles. His attitude only reinforced Dilandau’s decision to keep his men as far away as possible from the sorcerers.</p><p>***</p><p>‘Nobody must know I’m here, Dilandau,’ Pharoe scolded while entering the young officer’s room, ‘and you’re not supposed to call for me. I make an exception.</p><p>‘I’m very thankful, <i>my Lord</i>, ‘Dilandau replied without hiding his irony.</p><p>Now the man didn’t look so terrifying. He was shorter than Dilandau and quite old, with a wrinkled and yellowish skin.</p><p>Pharoe frowned. ‘What is that you want to show me?’</p><p>‘This.’ Dilandau sat at his dressing table and faced a small mirror.</p><p>‘Come near me.’</p><p>The sorcerer came closer.</p><p>‘Good heavens!’</p><p>Next to his own reflexion and in place of Dilandau’s one, Celena was smiling at him.</p><p>‘Please, let him sit, Dilandau. Hello Mister Pharoe.’</p><p>Without a word, the sorcerer took the seat Dilandau left for him.</p><p>‘Ain’t you happy to see her, <i>sir</i>?’ the young officer asked sarcastically.</p><p>‘Not at all. She isn’t supposed to be here.’</p><p>‘So what? I’m not supposed to exist and neither she?’ What do you want in the end?’ Dilandau asked with a pout.</p><p>‘Why do you say that? Of course you’re supposed to exist. All our efforts moved in this direction!’</p><p>‘But…’ Dilandau was confused, ‘I’ve heard it from yourself in the forest, you said…’</p><p>‘Oh that! That’s a misunderstanding,’ Pharoe waved his hand; ‘I was talking to Celena.’</p><p>‘You expect me to exist.’</p><p>‘Yes, we will do everything in our power to keep you alive. You’re our best achievement!’</p><p>‘What do you mean by “your achievement”?’ If Dilandau had felt relieved when the misunderstanding had been resolved, this feeling was already gone.</p><p>‘We made you, Dilandau. You belong to us.’</p><p>Dilandau blinked uncontrollably for a slip second and his eyes turned dull. He receded to sit on his bed, remaining silent.</p><p>‘Over here, Mister Pharoe’ Celena called his attention. ‘I’m the one who wanted to talk with you initially.’ Strangely, this time he hadn’t receded in the mirror along with Dilandau. She was close, like Pharoe’s reflection. The young man noticed it from his bed and wondered how she was able to do that. However he didn’t want to bring up the matter in front of the sorcerer.</p><p>‘You…’ Pharoe frowned, ‘we have to deal with you again.’</p><p>‘Yes sir. But before, I’d like to have an interview with you, if you don’t mind.</p><p>‘I haven’t got so much time. Be quick.’</p><p>‘Where is my body?’</p><p>‘You don’t have a body anymore. For a long time ago. That’s why it is useless for you to remain here.’</p><p>‘What happened to my body, then?’</p><p>‘It’s now Dilandau’s one. Ah! I’m not supposed to tell you that. It’s alright. You’re gonna disappear anyway.’</p><p>‘One more thing, sir.’</p><p>‘What?’</p><p>‘Could you come closer?’</p><p>The sorcerer bent toward the mirror, his nose almost against the surface. Inside, Celena had shrunk. She was now so small that Pharoe could barely see her, like is she was far away.</p><p>He heard her chuckling.</p><p>‘You did it! You touched the mirror!’ she exclaimed merrily.</p><p>All of a sudden her face took up the entire mirror. In the same time her skin had turned green, like the scales of a snake. Her narrow red eyes shone savagely and her voice resounded, hollow and loud, shaking whole room:</p><p>‘Now you’re mine! I want your body!’ she roared before bursting into insane laughter, her voice going from low to high tones in a split second.</p><p>Pharoe shrank back, clenching his hand on his chest. He was so frightened that he couldn’t look away from Celena’s glowing eyes. He sweated abundantly and seemed to feel weak.</p><p>Dilandau opened his eyes wide and he was unable to restrain a smile from pulling one corner of his mouth.</p><p>When the sorcerer collapsed and hit the floor sonorously he burst into laughter, a gay and insane laughter. He laughed like he had not laughed for a long time, and it lasted a while.</p><p>In the mirror, Celena had regained her usual appearance, smiling at Dilandau.</p><p>In the end the young man calmed down his fit of laughter. He stood up and pushed Pharoe with his foot. Dead.</p><p>‘I didn’t know you could do that,’ he said to Celena, still merry.</p><p>‘It’s quite recent. I think I can do whatever I want in the mirror.’</p><p>‘Funny.’</p><p>He rang for a servant.</p><p>The man who came was ready to have a heart attack too when he saw the sorcerer lying on the floor. He called his superior who called for a doctor who requested backups and soon the room was filled up with feverish people who talked and gesticulated all at once. There was a brief moment of calm when one doctor bled Pharoe, but no blood came out of his vein and the tumult resumed with greater intensity.</p><p>Dilandau took the small mirror and sat on his bed on the other side of the room to have some peace.</p><p>He smiled charmingly to Celena.</p><p>‘I’ll fire the dragonslayers. You deserve that.’</p><p>‘That’s all right,’ the girl replied, ‘I hated that man. During the operation I could see him, bending over you. I could see the pain that distorted your face in the reflection of his glasses. He enjoyed that.’ Celena’s face was empty as well as her tone and Dilandau had to imagine her anger and indignation.</p><p>‘Wait a sec, you could see my reflection? I have no reflection.’</p><p>‘You had one. Maybe that was because I was in you?’ she mused. ‘It was alright to be one with you.’</p><p>‘I don’t remember,’ he said, forming a pout with his lips. ‘Also, what were those questions about your body? Can’t you get out of the mirror like you did last time?</p><p>‘I could, but it’s not pleasant to be intangible.’</p><p>‘What are you talking about? You were very tangible.’</p><p>‘No, it’s more like a projection of thought.’</p><p>‘…the hell?’</p><p>‘It’s like my thoughts created illusions or hallucinations. You believed you saw me out of the mirror but that was an illusion I gave you through my thought.’</p><p>‘Everybody saw you! They can’t all see hallucinations!’</p><p>‘Yes, they can. That’s the power of thought. It’s much more powerful than you think.’</p><p>‘Are you fucking with me? I touched you, I fought with you, and you’re telling me that was an illusion?’</p><p>‘Yes.’ She paused. ‘Tactile illusions, optical illusions, olfactory illusions, hearing illusions… It doesn’t make a big difference.’</p><p>‘What about the wine you’ve drunk, the food you’ve eaten, the clothes you’ve worn?’</p><p>‘Illusions.’</p><p>‘Fuck!’</p><p>‘Don’t be rude. I’m being honest with you.’</p><p>Dilandau felt silent, still looking irritated. Then his expression changed slowly. Was it really possible? Her whole person had been so real… And yet, what could prove she had actually been there?’</p><p>‘What about Miguel?’ he asked more quietly. ‘You saved him. You dragged him away from Godashim while he was unconscious. And the Escaflowne’s sword broke because you had sanded it. That’s why my men survived.’</p><p>Celena remained silent for a moment.</p><p>‘Power of thought.’ she finally let slip.</p><p>Dilandau grumbled, but now it didn’t seem so impossible. Maybe. After all, what did he know about mind power? He shrugged.</p><p>‘The sorcerer said this body belonged to you at first…’ the young officer mused.</p><p>‘Don’t worry about that. I’ll find a way to get another body.’</p><p>‘Now what?’</p><p>‘I just need to find another body, for either of us, so that we can both exist.’</p><p>‘What a sorcery! You too wanna play that game?’</p><p>‘I have no choice.’</p><p>‘… and you think an uncultivated girl like you could do that?’</p><p>‘I’ve read a lot of illuminating documents since the last time. And I told you Hitomi gave me some powers.’</p><p>Dilandau marked a pause.</p><p>‘You could stay in the mirror. Things are fine like this.’</p><p>‘It’s not so bad,’ Celena conceded, ‘but I have a commitment.’</p><p> ‘Jajuka? He’ll be fine with me and he’ll meet you anytime he wants.’</p><p>‘No, I have pledged allegiance to Chid.’</p><p>‘Who?’ Dilandau narrowed one of his eyes while opening the other wide, which, framed by his long dark eyelashes made him look both funny and pretty.</p><p>‘Chid, the heir of Freid.’</p><p>‘You don’t mean the little brat who inherited the Crown of Freid?’</p><p>‘I’ve heard his father died. Poor child, that’s too sad.’</p><p>‘From all the people you’ve met you chose that little snot?’ Dilandau couldn’t believe his ears.</p><p>‘Hey! You pledged allegiance to Dornkirk!’</p><p>‘Yes, Emperor Dornkirk, that’s a man of power! You’d better pledge allegiance to him.’</p><p>‘I’m not gonna work for a cranky old man! He can’t even walk by himself.’</p><p>Dilandau opened his mouth but no sound came out for a few seconds. Then he giggled for he had pictured the scene in his mind.</p><p>‘Yeah, that dotard has had his days! Maybe I could kill him and take power, what do you think?’</p><p>‘I think you’re crazy. Folken wouldn’t let you anyway.’</p><p>‘Folken?’ That was the first time Dilandau heard her saying this name. For some reason he couldn’t explain he blushed. Her face and tone were expressionless as usual but there was something strange that Dilandau could feel. It made him uncomfortable.</p><p>‘So, how do you plan to find a body?’ he asked to change the subject.</p><p>‘I need to meet Folken. And I need your help for this.’</p><p>Dilandau groaned inwardly. What did she want with that damn strategist now? He started to feel truly uncomfortable.</p><p>Thankfully someone knocked at the door, and three sorcerers entered, side by side. They were the same he had met I the forest. During his talk with Celena, Dilandau hadn’t even noticed that the noisy staff members had left, taking Pharoe’s corpse along with them.</p><p>‘Hello Dilandau,’ the sorcerer in the middle said.</p><p>The young man discreetly hid the mirror in his sheets. No need for them to know about Celena.</p><p>‘What do you want,’ he grumbled. ‘You too are gonna collapse on my floor?’</p><p>‘Don’t worry, Dilandau, we just want to know what happened and why was Pharoe here.’</p><p>‘Hell if I know!’ The young officer stood up because he didn’t like being in a defenceless position in front of them. He slightly remembered, now, that most of the times he saw those faces he was lying on a cot and had to loop up at them.</p><p>‘What happened?’ the sorcerer insisted.</p><p>‘Ah well. He knocked at my door, saying he had to talk to me privately. Then he opened his mouth and instead of talking he gurgled, like this,’ Dilandau explained and mimed at the same time, gripping his chest and making incongruous noises with his throat. ‘And… that’s all.’</p><p>‘That’s all?’</p><p>‘Yeah, he fell down on the floor and he was dead. Like if I needed that! If you dotards can’t stand on your two feet stay at home!’</p><p>‘No need to be disrespectful, Dilandau. We’re not gonna cause you any trouble. But, don’t you have any idea about what Pharoe wanted to tell you?</p><p>‘Hmm, he seemed quite preoccupied; I think he was plotting something…’</p><p>‘Maybe he wanted to scheme behind our back,’ another sorcerer spoke up. ‘Pharoe always took credit for Dilandau’s achievement. He probably meant to outpace us to gain the management of the science department.’</p><p>Dilandau grinned inwardly. It was so easy to sow discord. Celena was right: their game wasn’t hard to read.</p><p>‘Anything else I can do for you my Lords?’ Dilandau asked hypocritically.</p><p>‘No, it’s fine.’ The cold mask of the sorcerer suddenly turned into kindness and concern. ‘How are you doing? Do you recover from the operation?’</p><p>‘I’m perfectly fine!’ Dilandau was irritated.</p><p>‘Very well. We won’t bother you any longer, then.’</p><p>‘Wait! Is Jajuka still with you? I want to have him under my command.’</p><p>‘But you’ve already got the dragonslayers.’</p><p>‘They’re worth shit. I want Jajuka.’</p><p>‘Alright, we’ll see that with General Adelphos.’</p><p> </p><p>‘What do you have in mind by taking Jajuka in your squad?’ Celena asked after the three men had left.</p><p>‘You wanted to see Folken? Well, I have a plan.’</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0015"><h2>15. Eriya</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Jajuka saluted.</p>
<p>‘Your guymelef is ready, Lord Dilandau.’</p>
<p>He was wearing the blue uniform of the dragonslayers and he was holding a bottle of wine. He brought it to the young man sat in front of him.</p>
<p>‘This is a present from the sorcerers. They want to apologize for the trouble of the operation and wish you good luck for the war.’</p>
<p>Miguel took the bottle. It was a fine Asturian wine, Commandant Dilandau’s favourite one. He had no idea of what operation the dogman was talking about. And the sorcerers… did those mysterious men have anything to do with the sudden firing of all the dragonslayers? Well, almost all of them. Miguel had got a reprieve. He had to play Dilandau’s role beside Jajuka while his commandant was away. Where he was going, Miguel had no idea despite he had questioned him adroitly. All he knew was that he was on a trip with Celena, but no one had seen the maiden since Ryuon had come back from Shib’s mountains.</p>
<p>Miguel followed Jajuka outside the tent. He was still ill-at-ease with his bright red uniform, wig and makeup, but he made a nice substitute. The only problem was that he was smaller than Dilandau. However Jajuka was so tall that no one would notice the difference as long as he would stay by his side.</p>
<p>***</p>
<p>Dilandau hadn’t taken part in the battle of Fanelia –or more accurately the destruction of Fanelia– but he had to acknowledge his men had done a good job.</p>
<p>He was wandering in the ruins of the city, already invaded by vegetation. He somehow liked the place and the atmosphere of quietness. The only thing he regretted was the loneliness. He would have preferred having the dragonslayers with him. But he had made a promise to Celena and now the boys were gone.</p>
<p>He found a broken vessel in the ruins and he recognized Folken’s personal flying ship, a small and manageable one. So the information he had collected was accurate.</p>
<p>There was no trace of the strategist, though, and while Dilandau was inspecting the wreck he could see from time to time a figure reflected in the shattered windows or metal sheeting. It was both a threatening and comforting presence. At one point he stopped to face her in a piece of window.</p>
<p>‘I like this place,’ she said, ‘it’s like in a fairy tale.’</p>
<p>‘I don’t know any,’ he shrugged. ‘I don’t know where to look for Folken now.’</p>
<p>‘Try the beastmen villages around.’</p>
<p>Dilandau nodded but remained unmoving. He still didn’t want to find Folken. He didn’t want her to meet him. He was so weird! And what to expect from a traitor? Moreover a doubly traitor!</p>
<p>‘Look out Dilandau!’ She warned.</p>
<p>The young man heard a crack and a dragon swooped on him from behind the vessel. He easily dodged and hurried to reach his guymelef.</p>
<p>‘You want to fight, huh? That’s fine with me!’ he smirked.</p>
<p>‘<i>Wait</i>!’ Celena exclaimed in his head, ‘<i>if you kill it, others will come.</i>’</p>
<p>‘So what? I’ll kill them all!’</p>
<p>‘<i>We can do some other way if you let me in charge. </i>’</p>
<p>‘What?’</p>
<p>‘<i>Please! I never failed you, did I? </i>’</p>
<p>Dilandau had his hand on the cloak of his alseides. He turned round.</p>
<p>‘Alright, do what you want!’</p>
<p>His body progressively reversed and she appeared instead of him, facing the charging dragon.</p>
<p>‘<i>Don’t just stand there</i>,’ Dilandau scolded, ‘<i>it is coming! </i>’</p>
<p>‘<i>Don’t worry and stop yelling. It will be fine. Jajuka taught me that they’re not dangerous. </i>’</p>
<p>The dragon indeed stopped in front of Celena. It slowly blinked its moist yellow eyes while both of them remained quiet. Then it turned around and disappeared in the forest.</p>
<p>‘<i>What was that? </i>’ Dilandau asked.</p>
<p>‘<i>You don’t have to fight every living being you meet. </i>’</p>
<p>‘<i>Well, fine. Let me in charge now, </i>’ he grumbled.</p>
<p>Celena chuckled, giving him way.</p>
<p>***</p>
<p>Indeed one of the villagers indicated him the way to a cavern where Folken had settled.</p>
<p>Dilandau climbed the tortuous path as easily as if walking on a broad flat road. It was already dark for the sun was setting and the vegetation was dense. He heard a light rustle ahead of him and put his hand on the hilt of his sword. The next second he had to block a powerful blow. Two blades noisily banged together in the penumbra of the trees.</p>
<p>‘Oh, it’s you!’ a feminine voice meowed.</p>
<p>Dilandau recognised that his attacker was one of the leopardgirls under Folken’s command. Which one she was, he couldn’t say. He had never bothered to remember their names anyway. It was the yellow-haired one.</p>
<p>‘What are you doing here?’ she asked.</p>
<p>‘I’m looking for Folken.’</p>
<p>The young woman stiffened.</p>
<p>‘What is it that you want with him?’</p>
<p>‘That’s none of your business.’ he snapped. ‘Where is he?’</p>
<p>She chuckled cockily, tapping the tip of her sword in her palm.</p>
<p>‘You don’t seriously expect me to tell you, right?’</p>
<p>‘That would be better for you,’ Dilandau threatened.</p>
<p>The smirk on Eriya’s face grew larger. She prepared to attack, as well as Dilandau.</p>
<p>‘<i>Wait, </i>’ Celena intervened, ‘<i>you should tell her you’re not here to arrest or punish Folken. </i>’</p>
<p>Dilandau stopped his gesture to think the matter over. Indeed the catgirl was protecting the former strategist. He had heard that she and her sister could compete with Refina and some people said they were even better. The young man was highly tempted to start a fight, just to see what she was worth… But there was something strange in her demeanour. She seemed different but he couldn’t put his finger on the problem. In the darkness he could barely see her features. Only the glimmering of her hair and blade made her visible.</p>
<p>Eriya pointed her sword toward him.</p>
<p>‘So what? Are you too cowardly to fight me?’</p>
<p>‘There’s no need to fight,’ he shrugged, his voice becoming suddenly amiable. ‘I want to meet Folken for private affairs. No one knows I’m here, and I haven’t come to cause him trouble.’</p>
<p>Eriya remained speechless. Commandant Dilandau avoiding combat was certainly unexpected.</p>
<p>‘I have to see Folken, <i>please</i>,’ he articulated as if the word tore his mouth.</p>
<p>‘For whom are you doing that?’ she asked suspiciously.</p>
<p>‘Mind your own business.’</p>
<p>‘Is it for the sake of your dragonslayers?’</p>
<p>‘Stop asking questions, woman!’ he snarled.</p>
<p>‘Alright, alright, let’s go,’ she chuckled with amusement.</p>
<p>They walked up to the cavern. A light was glowing from inside, like the red eye of the night.</p>
<p>‘He is awake,’ Dilandau let slip as if by disappointment. ‘He is always. Is he some kind of vampire?’</p>
<p>The former strategist had his back turned to them while he was working on chemical substances.</p>
<p>‘You’ve got rid of your awful cloak?’ Dilandau immediately noticed. ‘Good for…’ the rest of the sentence was choked in his throat.</p>
<p>Eriya had walked in the light and now he could see the changes in her face and body, bathed in the ominous light of the red flame.</p>
<p>Dilandau turned his gaze away from the catgirl and simply chose to forget.</p>
<p>‘Hello, Dilandau,’ Folken welcomed him. ‘Have you been well?’</p>
<p>‘I couldn’t feel better,’ the young man sneered, ‘although it’s not my pleasure to deal with a traitor, I need to see you privately.’</p>
<p>‘You must be tired from your trip and I have some work to finish. Why don’t you rest tonight and talk with me in the morning?’</p>
<p>Dilandau groaned a word of consent and found a place to lie down on one corner of the cavern. Morning was not so far away and the youth was impatient to see it. The atmosphere of this night was too gloomy. On the uneven wall, there was the sharp shadow of Folken who still looked like a sorcerer despite he had removed his cloak. There were his strange and threatening tools that reminded Dilandau of the operating room. There was the wail of wind through the rocky room. And there was the catgirl… Dilandau didn’t even want to think about her. What an abomination!</p>
<p>***</p>
<p>In the morning Dilandau placed a mirror on Folken’s lab bench. It was a rectangular one, quite wide, and when the young man looked at C’s expressionless face he had the feeling to watch a painting.</p>
<p>‘Thank you,’ the girl smiled at him. You can draw away; I’m not gonna disappear.’</p>
<p>Although he tried very hard, Dilandau couldn’t avoid noticing that Folken’s face lit up when he saw the maiden in the mirror. He stood a little further back, letting the former strategist face Celena.</p>
<p>‘I’m pleased to see you again, Celena,’ the tall man said kindly and Dilandau started to feel ill-at-ease.</p>
<p>Celena only smiled in answer.</p>
<p>‘Dilandau told me you needed my help,’ Folken added.</p>
<p>‘If you please.’ She pointed at the sheets of paper that Dilandau had brought at her request. ‘I’ve gathered information about the sorcerers work. But I don’t have enough knowledge to fully understand it. You do know a lot of science, do you?’</p>
<p>‘Well, I have stopped following their work for some time but I’ll do my best.’</p>
<p>‘I’m very grateful.’</p>
<p>‘My pleasure.’</p>
<p>Dilandau thought he was going to throw up. He slowly walked out of the cavern, unnoticed by the two others. He didn’t know how far he could go before Celena would disappear from the mirror. But there was no mean he could stand this conversation any longer.</p>
<p>He met Eriya in front of the cave.</p>
<p>Now that he had heard this ridiculous talk he wasn’t even disgusted by her look. And in the daylight the horror had lost its grip.</p>
<p>He watched her tired features, wrinkles, and low ears. She was also stooped and skinnier, barely filling her fighting outfit.</p>
<p>‘What a waste,’ Dilandau mumbled to himself, thinking she was nothing more than an old woman, henceforth.</p>
<p>‘A waste?’ she repeated proudly. ‘I gave my life to Lord Folken. ‘Paying the price doesn’t matter.’</p>
<p>‘But you’re useless to him now.’</p>
<p>‘I’m still here.’</p>
<p>‘You’ve lost your strength.’</p>
<p>‘And yet I’m still strong enough to clean your clock!’</p>
<p>Dilandau chuckled at that.</p>
<p>‘What happened to you?’</p>
<p>‘Dornkirk’s magic. We tried to improve our luck but there were side effects. We should have died but Lord Folken saved us with his science. He built machines to repair our bodies.’</p>
<p>‘It didn’t work pretty well,’ Dilandau commented.</p>
<p>‘Still better than being dead,’ Eriya retorted, pressing her lips together.</p>
<p>‘That’s your point of view.’</p>
<p>Dilandau could still hardly look at her. Old age was such a disgusting thing. Seeing her reminded him that he too, could grow old.</p>
<p>There was a silence during which they heard few words from the cavern. They stepped away, feeling both uneasy.</p>
<p>‘There’s a field behind,’ Eriya said, ‘we could go and spar a bit together.’</p>
<p>‘Not too far away,’ Dilandau replied, smiling at the prospect.</p>
<p>***</p>
<p>‘I know you’re gonna try to stop Dornkirk and that you’re gonna lose your life	there,’ Celena stated. ‘I had a vision, like Hitomi.’</p>
<p>‘That’s very impressive,’ Folken only replied.</p>
<p>‘You can avoid dying.’</p>
<p>‘No, I’m ready to face my fate.’</p>
<p>‘But it’s sad.’</p>
<p>‘Don’t be. I have to pay somehow for my mistakes.’</p>
<p>‘If it’s your choice, then, I won’t oppose it. But that’s a strange logic that you have.’</p>
<p>Folken smiled at her. ‘You have such a strong will to live. You remind me of my brother. But see, my fate is already sealed.’ Saying so, the tall man uncovered his back and spread his wings to Celena’s amazement.</p>
<p>***</p>
<p>The sun was hitting hard, almost at its zenith.</p>
<p>However Dilandau wasn’t sweating nor bothered by the dazzling light while he was sparring with Eriya. He noticed a slight movement near the cave.</p>
<p>‘Have you done in the end?’ he asked to the newcomer while waving his hand at the catgirl to interrupt the fight.</p>
<p>Folken nodded. ‘But we need you inside,’ he added, ‘it won’t be long.’</p>
<p>Dilandau realised it was the first time he saw that man in the daylight. The sun made nice patches on his skin and pale clothing. But still he looked like a sorcerer.</p>
<p>‘I’m busy,’ Dilandau replied, pouting like a stubborn child. He cast a glance at Eriya. She seemed exhausted by the effort. She had nicely contended but she had put all her strength in the fight while Dilandau was just warming up.</p>
<p>‘You shouldn’t push yourself, Eriya,’ Folken said. ‘You have to rest longer than before.’ He turned back toward the cavern and Dilandau eventually noticed his wings.</p>
<p>How came he hadn’t seen them earlier? Maybe because it seemed the most natural thing. And yet that was only the second time Folken spread them in front of him.</p>
<p>‘Weren’t your feathers white before?’ the youth asked cheekily. ‘What have you done? Have you try to dye them?</p>
<p>In answer Folken chuckled merrily.</p>
<p>Dilandau followed him in the penumbra of the cave, still reluctant to find himself with Celena and Folken.</p>
<p>‘We can start,’ the former strategist said.</p>
<p>‘Start what? Dilandau asked warily. He remained close to the entrance, his back turned to the wall.</p>
<p>‘It will be alright,’ Celena reassured him.</p>
<p>‘What will be alright?’ he snapped.</p>
<p>‘I’m just going to perform… little surgery on you,’ Folken explained quietly.</p>
<p>Dilandau turned pallid and looked daggers at Celena. How could she betray him in this way?</p>
<p>‘It won’t be long,’ Folken went on, ‘but it’s going to hurt both of you.’</p>
<p>Both of them? Huh, then it was a little bit different. But not enough.</p>
<p>‘There won’t be any needle,’ Celena said. ‘Please Dilandau!’</p>
<p>The feeling of betrayal faded away. The girl knew what she was doing.</p>
<p>‘I don’t trust him,’ he stated, pointing Folken out with a sharp movement of his chin.</p>
<p>Celena lowered her gaze and though she was still expressionless Dilandau knew she was blushing for he could feel flush on his own cheeks. Disgusting…</p>
<p>‘I do trust him…’ Celena started.</p>
<p>‘Enough!’ he cut her short. ‘I’ll go through any operation you want but I don’t wanna hear a one word more!’</p>
<p>He stretched out on the lab bench that Folken had cleared for the operation.</p>
<p>On the threshold of the cavern, Eriya was facing Celena with a grim look.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0016"><h2>16. Naria</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Miguel licked his lips with a mischievous smile. That was a hard liquor!</p>
<p>Standing in one corner of the room, Jajuka was silently scowling at the boy.</p>
<p>Since he had taken Dilandau’s place, the cooks kept providing Miguel with wine, according to the commandant’s habits, and the boy was impressed by the amount of bottles he received every week. Jajuka threw most of the wine away and returned the emptied bottles to pretend that Dilandau had drunk them. But there was always a bottle on Miguel’s table and the young soldier drank from time to time to <i>pretend</i> he was Dilandau. He enjoyed it, even if Jajuka was wary of that habit. But it was too much fun! The dogman was higher in the hierarchy –at least that was what Dilandau had clearly let them understand– but he couldn’t forbid anything to Miguel because he wouldn’t forbid anything to Dilandau.</p>
<p>Miguel sat a bit more cosily. The wine had warmed him up and his head was spinning just a little bit.</p>
<p>‘Do you want some too, Jajuka?’</p>
<p>‘I’m thankful for your goodness, Lord Dilandau, but I have to decline.’</p>
<p>‘Come on, drink!’</p>
<p>Miguel was highly tempted to formulate an order but he knew Dilandau wouldn’t forgive him if he took advantage of the situation.</p>
<p>‘At least you could sit down,’ he said and rested his head on the back of his chair, feeling sleepy.</p>
<p>Jajuka smiled imperceptibly. Miguel liked the dogman who was rather kind with him although he had no reason to. He was rather young despite he was so tall, but he was level-headed and strong and Miguel felt like a child in his company.</p>
<p>Suddenly, Jajuka stiffened. He always kept his hand on the hilt of his sword and he slightly unsheathed it with his thumb.</p>
<p>Miguel heard uneven steps and the door burst open. A bowing figure stumbled inside and heavily steadied itself on the table. The boy could hardly recognise the man, backlit by the torches of the corridor, and with features distorted by angst.</p>
<p>‘She’s gone,’ Commandant Dilandau wheezed. ‘She’s… gone…’</p>
<p>Jajuka moved forward to help him but he pushed his hand away. He grabbed Miguel’s collar, more to lean on him not to fall than to shake him. ‘You go!’ he stuttered against his face, ‘you have nothing more to do here.’ There was no trace of alcohol in his breath, which was surprising given his look. Bloodshot eyes, flared nostrils, foaming mouth, and his skin dry and breakable like cardboard.</p>
<p>‘Commandant Dilandau!’ Miguel exclaimed worriedly. ‘Who did that to you? What…’</p>
<p>Jajuka pulled him back gently, putting his enormous paws on his shoulder.</p>
<p>‘You’d better go.’</p>
<p>The dogman was very quiet, sounding reassuring, but Miguel knew that if he wasn’t obeyed promptly he would become ferocious.</p>
<p>Jajuka turned his attention to Dilandau and made him sit down very carefully. Out of the corner of his eyes he checked that Miguel was leaving.</p>
<p>The boy took a step backward. He was well aware that Commandant Dilandau was safer with Jajuka, but…</p>
<p>A low snarl from the dogman convinced him to leave the room. After all, he was prepared for weeks. He fetched his bundle in his bedroom and disembarked the floating fortress.</p>
<p>No backward glance. He knew where he was going.</p>
<p>***</p>
<p>The land was deserted and the wind carried fresh plant scents. It wasn’t a dry desert like in Freid, but the vegetation was so sparse and yellowish that it was barely noticeable. As far as the eye could see it was a flat stony ground.</p>
<p>Naria adjusted her backpack and followed the marked out road. It wasn’t really necessary to walk on the road to progress but it prevented travellers from getting lost.</p>
<p>The leopardgirl was coming from Zaibach headquarters. She had infiltrated the place to fetch some of Folken’s belongings, although the man had advised her against beginning such a journey. She indeed was completely exhausted but she didn’t care. It was like if physical pain was a part of her life now.<br/>When she had awoken a few weeks earlier her sister was still into an artificial coma. Folken had only one device to repair their bodies so he had had to wait for Naria’s recovery before taking care of Eriya.</p>
<p>The silver-haired girl was impatient to be back in Fanelia and to see her sister again. In the same time she feared that meeting. Finding Eriya disfigured was even more frightening than discovering her own ruined body. She was already used to it, she knew what she was able to do and what she had to do.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>She found him sleeping on the side of the road, his head resting under the tiny shadow of a somewhat big bush, compared to the average.</p>
<p>‘There’s only a kiddo to lie down so carefree in broad daylight like that,’ Naria thought inwardly.</p>
<p>She came closer to wake him up but instead she watched his face. He looked so peaceful and innocent, not like when he was awake.</p>
<p>She had heard that the dragonslayers had been fired, and though she hadn’t cared much she thought it was a good thing. They were too weak to stand war. Just looking at that baby face you could say he wasn’t made for a battlefield.</p>
<p>Everything looked soft in Miguel’s visage: the skin, the long dark eyelashes, the red lips and the fine fluff around his mouth. Thinking of beauty, another face appeared in Naria’s mind. Then she remembered Eriya and Folken’s kiss. Her sister had said it had hurt, because he didn’t love her. Naria closed her eyes. Her youth was gone now, and she would never have a chance to embrace the one she loved. There was only that sleeping boy. She bent over and brought her lips against his. Just long enough to taste them, to feel their softness and to etch the moment in her mind.</p>
<p>She drew back and sat on the ground, lost in her thoughts.</p>
<p>Miguel’s face wrinkled and he slowly opened his eyes. He started and jumped backward when he caught sight of Naria, unsheathing his dagger. As she didn’t react he relaxed some.</p>
<p>‘You scared me!’</p>
<p>‘Poor little thing.’</p>
<p>‘Poor little thing? What if I had stabbed you? You should be more careful.’</p>
<p>‘You can’t stab me.’</p>
<p>‘What is this disguise?’ Miguel asked, squinting because she was against the sunlight. ‘Have you made yourself up for an infiltration mission?’</p>
<p>She didn’t reply.</p>
<p>The boy’s eyes opened wide.</p>
<p>‘What the hell happened to you?’</p>
<p>His expression of surprise turned into disgust and he receded a bit.</p>
<p>‘Dornkirk’s magic. We tried our luck too much.’</p>
<p>‘Will you turn back to normal?’</p>
<p>‘Like if there was a way to reverse oldness!’ she scoffed.</p>
<p>Now Miguel looked sorry.</p>
<p>‘You were so well-endowed and beautiful… What a waste.’</p>
<p>‘I’m still beautiful.’</p>
<p>The boy raised his eyebrows.</p>
<p>‘You can keep thinking that if it makes you happy, but now you’re just an old lady.’</p>
<p>She smiled and Miguel saw her dark irises vibrantly shining in her sunken eyes. Her hair was a bit paler than before, which contrasted more with her brown strips. The sight made him uncomfortable and he absentmindedly touched his lips. He remembered the feeling of his dream. It was a very vivid dream… But only a dream.</p>
<p>‘What are you thinking about?’ Naria asked, noticing traces of sadness in his features.</p>
<p>‘Nothing, mind your own business!’</p>
<p>‘You’re maybe cute but you’re very cranky!’</p>
<p>Miguel blushed and touched again his mouth, looking warily at her.</p>
<p>She chuckled and he frowned.</p>
<p>‘Where are you going?’ she asked.</p>
<p>‘I’m on a mission for Commandant Dilandau.’</p>
<p>She laughed again.</p>
<p>‘You’ve been fired!’</p>
<p>Miguel made a face.</p>
<p>‘Not for long,’ he mumbled.</p>
<p>‘Are you planning something with your little friends?’</p>
<p>‘Maybe.’</p>
<p>‘It’s better for you to stay together.’</p>
<p>‘I don’t need you opinion.’</p>
<p>She pinched his cheek with her claws.</p>
<p>‘Don’t be disrespectful to your elder. I can make a piece of walk with you. I’m heading toward Freid.’</p>
<p>‘So that’s where Folken is?’</p>
<p>Naria’s eyes glimmered.</p>
<p>‘You too should better stay with him,’ Miguel mocked her. ‘I hope he’ll take good care of you after what you sacrifice for him!’</p>
<p>Naria abruptly stood up and walked away, face hardened.</p>
<p>‘Oh, come on!’ Miguel picked up his bundle and followed her. ‘I’m just saying, don’t get upset.’</p>
<p>Her expression softened but remained tired and gloomy.</p>
<p>The boy smiled impishly.</p>
<p>‘Do you need to lean on my arm for walking, <i>my lady</i>?’</p>
<p>Naria didn’t respond nor slow her pace but a thin grin pulled one corner of her lips.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>The catgirl wasn’t heading toward Freid but toward Asturia. However there was no way she would let the boy know where Folken was, even if she liked him.</p>
<p>They parted near the frontier.</p>
<p>Miguel didn’t want to talk about his destination either, and Naria didn’t really care.</p>
<p>She was too weak to pilot a guymelef now, but the Asturian authorities had provided Folken with a small vessel that he had lent her. She had hidden it in the forest neighbouring Zaibach’s border to infiltrate the headquarters discreetly.</p>
<p>She found the ship where she had left it, and while she removed the branches-made camouflage she realised she wasn’t able to walk anymore.</p>
<p>She spent her last strength to get the vessel ready. It was a traditional wooden ship, with two lateral floating rocks and a single sail.</p>
<p>There was a regular airstream that let to Palas, flying over the forest and a part of the sea.</p>
<p>She took that stream and checked the direction. Then she sighed and fell instantly asleep.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>When she awake –was it days later or only hours?– the sun was setting, bathing Palas’s castle in red and gold and sparkling on the labyrinth of canals.</p>
<p>She entered the town stealthily. She was allowed to be there, but while she crossed the rampart she remembered the man whom she had slit the throat. She was still an enemy of this town. She didn’t want to meet the citizens, nor Folken’s brother, nor the girl from the Mystic Moon who had been so good to her.</p>
<p>***</p>
<p>‘In Dilanau’s memories your feathers were so white! He thought you were a fallen angel,’ Celena said.</p>
<p>‘So that’s how you saw them? Through Dilandau’s eyes?’ Folken asked.</p>
<p>‘Not exactly through his eyes, I wasn’t there yet. I emerged later and I watched this part of his memory. It’s not the same because, you know, you rewrite the events when you memorize them.’</p>
<p>‘I remembered he was so dumbstruck he couldn’t make a full sentence!’</p>
<p>‘The part where he is falling in the empty space and you jump to save him and spread you wings is pretty cool!’</p>
<p>‘What a little fool! He had pushed his guymelef too much and had to get out of it before it would explode. At eighth hundred feet above the ground. Ah, and he wasn’t allowed to train outside the floating fortress…’</p>
<p>Celena chuckled. ‘How old was he? Ten years old?’</p>
<p>‘He was already a devil…’</p>
<p>Naria was listening in the corridor for some minutes. She didn’t know who the woman with Folken was and she didn’t want to disturb them. At one point she couldn’t help but casting a glance through the slightly open door.</p>
<p>Folken was sat at his desk, turning his back to her. The shrill voice of the woman was coming from a mirror in front of the former strategist. When she saw the reflection in it, Naria leapt in the room. She unsheathed her sword in a flash and hit the mirror, smashing it to pieces.</p>
<p>‘Naria!’ Folken exclaimed, but the catgirl couldn’t say if he was surprised, scolding her or trying to soothe her.</p>
<p>He looked down at the fragments on the floor. Naria followed his gaze and froze.</p>
<p>There was the face of the girl in every piece, fitting its size, and she was smiling at her.</p>
<p>‘What is this sorcery?’ the leopardgirl managed to articulate, blushing with anger.</p>
<p>A door at the back of the room opened and Eriya came in slowly.</p>
<p>Her face was wrinkled but it was more due to her deep frown than to the failure of Luck Transfusion.</p>
<p>‘There is nothing you can do against her, Naria,’ she said darkly.</p>
<p>‘Really?’ Naria retorted ferociously, ‘What if I warn the sorcerers about her?’ She had recognised Dilandau’s sister, and she hadn’t missed the presence of his scar on the opposite cheek.</p>
<p>‘Naria, don’t,’ Folken said.</p>
<p>The leopardgirl looked at the man and then at his shadow. Too thin. Too short.</p>
<p>‘But Lord Folken!’ How can you accept that?’</p>
<p>‘This is not such a terrible curse,’ the former strategist replied unshakably. ‘Naria, Eriya, I have to stop the war I started. I have to stop Dornkirk.’</p>
<p>‘And we’ll be at your command, Lord Folken,’ Eriya stated firmly.</p>
<p>‘No, you must leave me before you get hurt more. I have made an arrangement with Ruhm so that you’ll be welcomed in his village. You are free to go wherever you want, but you can’t stay by my side.’</p>
<p>‘You ask us to abandon you?’ Eriya could barely believe her ears.</p>
<p>‘I ask you to go your own way, <i>please</i>.’ For once Folken’s impassive mask broke and he looked open-hearted, almost vulnerable.</p>
<p>‘There is nothing we can refuse you,’ Naria, said gloomily.</p>
<p>‘Naria!’ her sister exclaimed with anger. ‘Of course we’re not leaving you my Lord.’</p>
<p>‘Eriya…’ Folken looked now sad and the girl felt ashamed. ‘There is another favour I have to ask you. Keep the secret about the mirror and Celena.’</p>
<p>There was a silence. Eriya seemed about to cry and Naria looked down. On the floor the pieces of mirror were still smiling at her and she lost herself in the multitude of gazes fixed upon her.</p>
<p>‘We won’t betray you, Lord Folken,’ Naria promised. She took Eriya who was starting sobbing in her arms to comfort her.</p>
<p>‘Thank you,’ Folken said.</p>
<p>Celena’s gaze was still following the leopardgirl.</p>
<p>‘Thank you Miss,’ the reflections said, ‘I wish you good luck for your future.’</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0017"><h2>17. Yaifa</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Yaifa pounded the makeshift table.</p>
<p>‘We can’t wait any longer!’ he yelled. ‘Gatti has seen the sorcerers; that’s enough to understand they are pulling the strings. The only way to support Lord Dilandau is to fight them!’</p>
<p>‘Don’t get carried away, Yaifa,’ Dalet scolded, ‘Gatti met only one of them and it doesn’t prove anything.’</p>
<p>Gatti frowned and remained silent for a split second. He was thinking about Dilandau’s disappearance in the mirror. He too was convinced that the sorcerers were behind the whole mystery but he was sworn to silence. Yaifa noticed his moment of hesitation.</p>
<p>‘You agree with me Gatti!’ he stated.</p>
<p>‘No,’ the other replied. ‘We don’t know anything of the sorcerers’ intention. We can’t rush headlong. Plus we have to wait for Miguel’s return. Maybe he will have discovered something.’</p>
<p>Yaifa gritted his teeth and doing so he wrinkled his face in a way that made his glasses slide. That was the sign his anger had reached its height.</p>
<p>‘I think this is the wisest thing to do.’</p>
<p>Yaifa turned his fuming gaze toward Viole. The slim boy was standing in the shadow, arms crossed. Adjusting his glasses, the young soldier then looked at Chesta and Guimel who remained silent.</p>
<p>‘I see.’</p>
<p>He stood up and left the cave, fulminating inwardly.</p>
<p>On the shore he found Ryuon who was watching the horizon.</p>
<p>After having been fired, they had settled near Zaibach’s border, on the South coast. There the coastline was cut in the rock, forming many small caverns where they had hidden their guymelefs. The old ones. Those which were barely manoeuvrable since Fanelia’s king had stammered them. Much to their astonishment Dilandau had offered the machines to the men he was firing. They had spent the last weeks reconditioning their guymelefs, getting ready to come back at Dilandau’s side. But now that they had to make a decision they started to argue. Ryuon was tired of those quarrels and remained outside, preferring to be on the watch.</p>
<p>Yaifa sat down next to him and enjoyed his silent company for some minutes.</p>
<p>‘What is your opinion about the sorcerers?’ he asked then.</p>
<p>Ryuon looked at the silver-haired boy, smiling imperceptibly at the sight of his grouchy face.</p>
<p>‘I don’t know much about them. I told you, they are responsible for the enslaving of beastmen.’</p>
<p>Yaifa frowned more.</p>
<p>Since his return from Shib’s mountains the tall blond boy was even more silent than before. It is to say that even if he talked to Yaifa and the others he didn’t share he thoughts. That was something his impulsive comrade and childhood friend wouldn’t stand. He and Ryuon were too close to be separated by a woman.</p>
<p>‘That witch!’ Yaifa muttered.</p>
<p>‘I don’t think Miss Celena is a witch,’ Ryuon replied.</p>
<p>‘Then what is she?’</p>
<p>There was a silence.</p>
<p>‘Dammit Ryuon! What happened during your trip that perturbed you so much?’</p>
<p>Ryuon rummaged through his hair uneasily.</p>
<p>‘I can’t tell you that. You gonna go berserk.’</p>
<p>‘Just tell me whether I have to kill the sorcerers or not!’</p>
<p>‘I think Miss Celena handles it.’</p>
<p>‘You trust her too much!’</p>
<p>‘That is not about trusting. She is prepared to fight them for long. And our objective is to protect Lord Dilandau.’</p>
<p>‘Ryuon! You know we are worthless from the very beginning! If we want to help Lord Dilandau, it’s now or never. And for heaven’s sake talk to me!’</p>
<p>This time silence lasted a long minute.</p>
<p>‘I have reason to believe that Lord Dilandau is not exactly… human.’ Ryuon said in the end.</p>
<p>Yaifa’s face turned as white as sheet and Ryuon regretted having spoken. He knew the boy from the cradle and he knew what he was able to do.</p>
<p>‘We-must-find-the-sorcerers,’ Yaifa articulated with difficulty, his voice strangled by anger.</p>
<p>‘The sorcerers?’ someone asked,’ what’s going on with them again?’</p>
<p>The two boys turned their heads toward the newcomer. It was Miguel, standing a little higher on the rock.</p>
<p>‘You should put a spotter, guys, what a lack of vigilance!’ the boy said rather cockily, ‘you really have no head when I’m not around to think for you!’</p>
<p>‘What do you know about the sorcerers?’ Yaifa barked at him.</p>
<p>Miguel jumped down to join them.</p>
<p>‘What, why? Something happened?’ he asked.</p>
<p>‘I’ve asked you a question!’ the silver-haired boy snarled and caught his by his collar. ‘WHAT DO YOU KNOW?’</p>
<p>‘S-stop-p shaki-ing me or I smash your stupid face and glasses!’ Miguel defended himself. He tried to twist Yaifa’s wrist but then Ryuon separated them.</p>
<p>‘Answer him, Miguel,’ Gatti stated, crossing his arms.</p>
<p>All the dragonslayers were gathered around him.</p>
<p>‘I see, you really can’t do without me,’ Miguel grumbled.</p>
<p>***</p>
<p>How can she do that? Jajuka, how?’</p>
<p>‘I don’t know,’ the dogman replied, ‘she just does.’</p>
<p>Dilandau rolled his eyes with a mix of annoyance and panic. Since his return from Fanelia the dark walls of the fortress Delate made him sick. It reminded him too much of Folken.</p>
<p>He avidly took his glass and filled his throat with wine.</p>
<p>‘She appeared in my place?’ he asked again.</p>
<p>Jajuka nodded.</p>
<p>‘But I can’t hear her!’ Dilandau exclaimed with exasperation.</p>
<p>He checked his reflection in the glass: the usual black smoke. ‘And I can’t see her.’ He narrowed his eyes. ‘What did she say?’</p>
<p>‘She wants to see the dragonslayers.’</p>
<p>‘Dammit! I want to talk to her directly!’</p>
<p>‘That’s probably the only way she found,’ Jajuka said.</p>
<p>‘Hmm.’</p>
<p>Dilandau didn’t like this situation at all. He could accept that she was in his mirror. He could also accept that she wandered out of the mirror from time to time. But he disapproved that she settled in someone else’s mirror. And now… What was that way of visiting him? Taking control of his body like that… He couldn’t even remember what had happened during that timeframe! He hadn’t heard her voice nor seen her. He could only trust Jajuka when he told him she was there.</p>
<p>But he hadn’t much time to think the matter over. After all, he was at war.</p>
<p>***</p>
<p>‘Jajuka! Land there.’</p>
<p> The blue oreades touched the ground and gently dropped off Dilandau. The cockpit opened and Jajuka climbed down in his turn.</p>
<p>Dilandau stroke his skirt with shaky hands.</p>
<p>‘She did it again! Where have I been?’</p>
<p>He cast a glance over the dog man who remained silent.</p>
<p>‘Give me your clothes.’</p>
<p>Soon after the young man was dressed with Jajuka’s far too loose uniform and the dogman had made a sort of apron for himself with the feminine clothes that Dilandau had torn up.</p>
<p>‘We are still in Asturia,’ Jajuka warned, ‘do we go back to the camp?’</p>
<p>‘Not at all, General Adelphos will wait. I’ll take the opportunity to pay the dragonslayers a visit. That’s what Celena wanted, right?’</p>
<p>Dilandau dusted his sleeves, as if trying to get rid of the memory of the cemetery. What was he doing there with Allen Schezar and that woman?’</p>
<p>‘Geez, I don’t like blue! It doesn’t fit me well.’</p>
<p>***</p>
<p>‘The plan is very simple,’ Yaifa said, joining his fingers under his chin, and though he tried to look calm, he couldn’t repress his eyebrows from furrowing spasmodically. ‘We find a sorcerer and we hit him until he tells us the whole truth.’</p>
<p>They were all gathered in the cave around the wooden table.</p>
<p>‘Guimel remembers the localisation of some laboratories and there we’ll find more information about the other places.’ Yaifa added. ‘Do you have any question?’</p>
<p>‘Yeah,’ Miguel said with a lazy intonation, ‘what makes you thing we’re gonna follow your crazy plan?’</p>
<p>Yaifa jumped on his feet.</p>
<p>‘I knew it! If all what you want is to cross your arms and wait then that’s your problem! I’ll fix the matter by myself!’</p>
<p>‘What matter?’</p>
<p>They all stood at attention.</p>
<p>Dilandau walked in the cavern, letting his gaze wander over the former soldiers.</p>
<p>‘So? No one’s gonna answer?’ he asked, somewhat threatening while the tall figure of Jajuka obstructed the entrance and darkened the place.</p>
<p>‘We were worried about you…’ Chesta said sheepishly.</p>
<p>Dilandau stared at the boy who stiffened but he turned his head away, smiling mischievously.</p>
<p>‘Do civilians have to salute for an officer?’ he asked.</p>
<p>The boys rolled their eyes to look at each other but no one dared to move.</p>
<p>‘At ease!’ Dilandau said and they started to speak all at once, calling their commandant or Jajuka, asking for news, begging to be reinserted in the squad or swearing loyalty again.</p>
<p>‘Damn, Lord Dilanau looks even more handsome in blue,’ Miguel mumbled to himself but Gatti heard him and kicked him.</p>
<p>‘Lord Dilandau, Lord Dilandau!’ Chesta screamed with anguish, ‘are you feeling bad?’</p>
<p>The boys crowded around Dilandau who was bending, leaning on the table.</p>
<p>‘I’m fine, thank you Chesta,’ Celena replied kindly. She raised her head and smiled. This time her scar was on the same side of her face than for Dilandau.</p>
<p>‘Miss Celena!’ Ryuon stuttered and remained gaping.</p>
<p>‘I told you she was a witch!’ Yaifa said in a low voice.</p>
<p>Jajuka snarled behind him.</p>
<p>‘I’m glad to see you all seem alright,’ Celena added, ‘I’d like to stay with you a couple of days, if it’s fine with you.’</p>
<p>Gatti welcomed her with his usual ceremonious politeness, although his voice was colder.</p>
<p>In the evening they prepared dinner while she and Guimel chatted together. The other dragonslayers were cooking in a neighboring alcove, giving each other meaningful glances and hearing from time to time the tinkling laugh of either Celena or the fluffy-haired boy.</p>
<p>Just after the meal, the girl invited Viole for a walk along the shore. During their absence the boys badgered Jajuka with questions but the dogman only growled and went to bed.</p>
<p>Viole came back in the middle of the night, alone, and said the Miss Celena wanted to walk a little longer.</p>
<p>‘Enough with niceties,’ Miguel complained, ‘what did she want with you?’</p>
<p>Viole smiled tiredly.</p>
<p>‘She wants me to take care of Folken’s body after his death.’</p>
<p>‘What?’</p>
<p>‘She thinks that he won’t survive the war. He is a traitor for Zaibach and a former enemy of Asturia. Not to mention he destroyed his own country. She is afraid that no one gives him a decent burial, so…’</p>
<p>‘Why can’t she take care of that herself?’</p>
<p>‘Yaifa!’ Gatti scolded.</p>
<p>‘Lord Dilandau is still an officer. He has to join the battlefield.’ Viole replied.</p>
<p>‘Did she say something about Commandant Dilandau?’ Chesta enquired with concern.</p>
<p>Viole shook his head negatively.</p>
<p>‘Then,’ Yaifa said dangerously, he eyes shining behind his glasses, ‘we must force her to talk.’</p>
<p>‘Oi Yaifa!’ Ryuon exclaimed.</p>
<p>‘We can’t do that,’ Dalet retorted flatly, ‘Lord Dilandau introduced her to us as his sister. We have to show respect to her.’</p>
<p>‘Anyway, she and Jajuka are stronger than us,’ Miguel muttered gloomily.</p>
<p>‘And I’ll take their side,’ Guimel added.</p>
<p>‘I’ll talk to her when she’ll come back,’ Gatti said in an attempt to reassure his comrades.</p>
<p>They shrugged and mumbled while joining the room that served as a dormitory and where Jajuka was loudly snoring.</p>
<p>Instead of joining the others, Miguel came near Jajuka.</p>
<p>‘Hey!’ he whispered, patting the broad shoulders of the sleeping dogman.</p>
<p>In answer he got a long snore which made Jajuka’s fur shiver.</p>
<p>Undeterred, Miguel grasped a handful of the brown hair and pulled sharply.</p>
<p>Jajuka turned toward him while sitting up, dominating the kneeling boy from his height.</p>
<p>‘Jajuka!’ Miguel said quickly, ‘I need your guymelef to fight the sorcerers.’</p>
<p>The dogman’s huge paw fell on Miguel’s head.</p>
<p>‘Are you in a hurry to die, kiddo? That would make my little Celena sad. And Dilandau.’</p>
<p>‘But if the sorcerers die, that would make them happy, am I wrong?’</p>
<p>Although the room was dark, Miguel discerned that the tall soldier was grinning under his hair.</p>
<p>Jajuka patted the boy’s head a bit too hard for an affectionate gesture.</p>
<p>‘Go to bed now.’</p>
<p>***</p>
<p>‘Good morning ma’am,’ Gatti saluted.</p>
<p>Celena was idly sitting on the small table, playing with her fingers as if she didn’t know what to do with her body. This unusual attitude made the dragonslayers even more uncomfortable. They were attending their business, pretending not to listen to the girl and Gatti’s talk.</p>
<p>‘I’ve heard you and Lord Dilandau had some trouble with the sorcerers,’ the boy added, ‘you can count on our strength and loyalty to fight them.’</p>
<p>Celena smiled.</p>
<p>‘I’m serious, madam, if you just tell us…’</p>
<p>‘I’m not telling you. The sorcerers and I had a quarrel in the past, but now I’m ready to put it behind me. I’m not gonna take revenge on them.’</p>
<p>‘What about Lord Dilandau?’</p>
<p>‘Well, he is busy taking revenge on Van.’</p>
<p>‘So, you think we should stand idly by?’ Yaifa couldn’t help but interfering.</p>
<p>‘I think you should wait for the end of the war, find a nice place to settle down and live your lives.’</p>
<p>‘What will become of the sorcerers?’</p>
<p>Celena shrugged, by ignorance or indifference, still smiling.</p>
<p>Jajuka entered the cave, and just like the first time he hid the light.</p>
<p>His voice resonated in the dark cavern: ‘The oreades is ready, Lord Dilandau.’</p>
<p>Dilandau scratched his scar with a rather crazy smirk.</p>
<p>‘Well well! I can’t wait to face you, Van!’</p>
<p>He left the room, looking like if he had forgotten the dragonslayers, the sorcerers and the whole war.</p>
<p>The boys heard the guymelef taking its flight, remaining rigid like statues. Then, all at once, they gathered around Yaifa.</p>
<p>‘Let’s see your plan.’</p>
<p>***</p>
<p>The dragonslayers acted efficiently, according to the plan devised by Yaifa and Miguel.</p>
<p>Three alseides attacked a target, piercing through the defenses then taking flight to hit another side of the place. Around ten foot soldiers entered the breach made by the guymelefs and raged inside the laboratory. Then two alseides came to back up the first three, playing with surprise to beat the enemy guymelefs.</p>
<p>Part of the efficiency depended of the speed to cut all communications. No survivors, no witnesses. If the other laboratories were aware of the destruction of secret places, they didn’t know who was behind it, how they operated or how they could locate the spots with so much accuracy.</p>
<p>The dragonslayers had almost stopped sleeping so that the attacks occurred as close together as possible and the enemy had no time to prepare a counter-attack.</p>
<p>Thus they had reached the last laboratory, the most remote in the countryside.</p>
<p>By chance, they had found what they were looking for in the first place they had ravaged. They had read the documents about fate alteration and they had found the answer to all their questions. They had quickly decided to burn down the laboratory. Then all the boys had sworn to kill the sorcerers until the last –except for Yaifa who had sworn days before.</p>
<p>Therefore the silver-haired boy was charging ahead, giving the others enough wrath and hate for this endless slaughter.</p>
<p>Exhausted by the lack of sleep and the incessant fights, the dragonslayers moved only by instinct, looking like starving wolves.</p>
<p>‘Out of my way, you damn underlings!’ Yaifa roared, slaying a soldier, ‘I’m looking for the sorcerers!’</p>
<p>‘There!’ Dalet warned and rushed in a corridor where a group of black cloaked men were running away.</p>
<p>The dragonslayers pursued them until they cornered them in a dark operating room.</p>
<p>Yaifa slit the throat of one man and disemboweled another. Then he noticed a rather young man wearing the black cloak and hiding in a corner of the room, pallid and sweaty, horrified by the slaughter.</p>
<p>Yaifa bounced toward him but Gatti got between them: ‘Wait, Yaifa!’</p>
<p>‘What are you doing? He is a sorcerer!’ Yaifa exclaimed furiously.</p>
<p>‘He is Refina’s brother!’ Gatti argued.</p>
<p>‘So what?’</p>
<p>‘I can’t let you kill him.’</p>
<p>‘Why? Because Refina is your fiancée? Even you acknowledge this wedding is a whole farce!’</p>
<p>‘I know, but still.’</p>
<p>The silver-haired boy felt his blood simmering. After so many murders, fighting his own comrade didn’t bother him too much.</p>
<p>‘It’s alright, Yaifa,’ Ryuon said.</p>
<p>‘It’s fine with me to spare him,’ Dalet added.</p>
<p>Yaifa cast a glance behind him. The sorcerers were all dead, except that one and Folken.</p>
<p>The dragonslayers seemed replete now. Most of them had respect for the commandant of the Salamander squadron.</p>
<p>‘It’s over,’ Miguel stated, gloomily.</p>
<p>Yaifa eventually lowered his sword and a thin smile pulled the corners of his lips.</p>
<p>‘Yeah, it’s over.’</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0018"><h2>18. Allen</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Celena felt the wind blowing on her face and the swinging of her body following the gallop of her horse. It was an amazing sensation which reawakened very old memories. Her senses were so accurate now that she could feel the tiny variation of the sun, hear the rustling of the trees, and a million of details forming a warm swarm of sounds and iridescent colours blooming in the spring.</p>
<p>She had some feelings back then when she had taken control of Dilandau’s body. But compared to this new word of sensation it was like piloting a guymelef.</p>
<p>Ahead of her, the bright blond hair of her brother rippled along with the tail of his white horse.</p>
<p>For fun, Celena pressed the flanks of her mount and overtook Allen. The young man laughed and speeded up.</p>
<p>The maiden realised it was the first time she heard that laughter since her early childhood. It was deeper than in her memories but so pleasant to her ears that it was like listening to music.</p>
<p>They stopped at the top of the hill. That was the place Allen wanted to show her: the flowered field that their mother loved deeply.</p>
<p>Celena remembered very well her moments with Allen before her abduction. She also had vague recollections of her father who had left home. But her mother she didn’t remember at all. Or was it that she didn’t want to remember? She knew they had loved each other above everything and that Encia was now gone. Celena was too much afraid of the pain and grief. She understood Dilandau henceforth, and she too knew what it was like to keep memories that terrified you and to bury them in one corner of your head to pretend not to be aware of them. They both saw death as an abomination –although one of them took some pleasure in others’ death– and that was something they couldn’t fight. Dilandau was forever grateful to Celena for saving the lives of his men, even if he would never acknowledge that. He avoided old people and whatever could make him think of death. And he always got rid of his flowers before they withered. That was something he and Encia had in common. The taste for flowers. Was it the woman who had passed this passion down to him? Even her name sounded like a flower’s name. Encia… Celena looked down at a yellow flower whose she didn’t know the variety, planted near her horse’s hoof. Encia would fit it well. And it fitted Encia. That was how she wanted to picture her mother. A delicate wild flower that bloomed here and there.</p>
<p>‘Come Celena!’ Allen called, ‘come smell the flowers.’</p>
<p>Her brother was offering her his hand to dismount, smiling like the little boy she had known ten years earlier.</p>
<p>Allen might well be a brave and flawless knight, when his eyes met Celena’s ones his heart melted. The girl loved and admired the strong fighter he had become but she loved even more the gentle brother he still was.</p>
<p>Celena followed Allen in the field and they sat under a tree, between light and shadow. With the tip of her fingers, the girl could feel a word of infinite variation, from the rough texture of wild grass to the delicate grooves of bindweed’s petals.</p>
<p>After Hitomi and Van had put an end to the war, Zaibach’s magic had been broken. It was as if Dilandau had never existed and her body had always been her body.</p>
<p>As for Jajuka, he had temporarily left for his mountains, both to bid farewell to his family and friends and to let Celena and Allen privacy.</p>
<p>Celena regretted not having seen Hitomi again before her departure. She was in the Mystic Moon now, at home, and so was Celena.</p>
<p>The girl opened her mouth widely and stuck out her tongue as far as she could, displaying disgust. Then she rolled her eyes up and down, blowing up her cheeks.</p>
<p>‘Stop making faces, Celena!’ Allen scolded, yet laughing with his eyes.</p>
<p>‘But I have to learn that again. I didn’t grimace since I was five. Plus it’s very funny.’</p>
<p>‘So,’ Allen sighed, not hiding his amusement, ‘we have to restart from the very beginning, I guess.’</p>
<p>‘Since I was five.’ Her face darkened imperceptibly. ‘You know, Dilandau…’ She suddenly smiled. ‘He welcomed me as a sister. He truly was a brother to me all those years I was in Zaibach. Although he had no reason to treat me like that.’</p>
<p>‘Well, I’m happy to know it. He couldn’t be totally nasty.’</p>
<p>‘If he came back one day, I wish you would welcome him as a brother too. You know, he has no family.’</p>
<p>Allen frowned lightly.</p>
<p>‘But Dilandau is gone for good now. He was only kept alive by Zaibach’s sorcery. Isn’t it?’</p>
<p>‘Please.’</p>
<p>Allen blinked. It wasn’t like if he could refuse her anything. He nodded silently. Immediately a broad smile lightened her face like a ray of sunshine. In answer Allen’s eyes shone with kindness.</p>
<p>‘Your eyes remind me of the jewel on Prince Chid’s ring,’ Celena noticed. ‘And he looks very much like you.’</p>
<p>‘You have met Chid?’ Allen asked, incredulous.</p>
<p>‘Yes, and I love him much. I wish I could lend my support to him later.’</p>
<p>Allen’s features turned into an expression Celena had never seen before on his face. The knight was calculating what his sister could become. Being a court lady near Chid would be highly convenient for both of them but it wasn’t in Freid’s traditions to surround a prince –as young as he might be– with women. Allen couldn’t give the heir a nanny from out of nowhere. He had first considered entrusting his sister to Princess Eries but he wasn’t so sure they would get along well. Keeping her with him would be the best, but he had his duty in the fortress and he couldn’t bring her in such a man’s world.</p>
<p>‘Allen!’ Celena called, ‘why are you lost in your thoughts! Are you thinking about Chid? Miguel told me he holds you in high esteem.’</p>
<p>‘Miguel? The prisoner from Zaibach?’</p>
<p>‘Yes. And you? You care for him, do you? You know he’ll become a great king!’</p>
<p>‘To you I should tell,’ Allen mumbled. ‘Chid is my son.’</p>
<p>‘Really?’ Celena was smiling from ear to ear. ‘So he is my nephew? This is very nice!’</p>
<p>‘You don’t look so surprised.’</p>
<p>‘Oh, I felt I was bound to him somehow. I’m gonna…’ Celena stopped suddenly. She didn’t trust her brother. Since their reunion there was something she didn’t like about him. He thought he was responsible for her, for her life and her happiness. This wasn’t right. Was he gonna support her decision to enter in Chid’s service? Nothing was less certain. ‘I’m gonna see him again.’ She said instead.</p>
<p>‘Of course. There will be a diplomatic trip soon or later. Princess Millerna will be happy to take you as a companion lady.’</p>
<p>Celena tilted her head dreamily. She remembered having heard Chid calling the princess “aunt Millerna”. Would she ever hear “aunt Celena?” Without thinking she stood up and gambolled like a little girl.</p>
<p>Then what did it make Dilaudau? Chid’s uncle? The thought made her laugh heartily.</p>
<p>‘What makes you laugh, Celena?’ Allen too had stood up, smiling irrepressibly, tenderness painted on his features. This, was the only expression Celena wanted to see on her brother’s face.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0019"><h2>19. Feri</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>So, Feri is not strictly speaking an original character. Well, let's see</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>A few days later, Allen was summoned to the court of Asturia for military affairs. Before leaving for the day he had told Celena that he would come back with some of his men to introduce them to her. He had particularly mentioned Gaddes, and the maiden could already guess what Allen was planning for them both. Then he and his men would have to leave for the fortress near the border. The knight had left his sister with a deep wrinkle on his forehead, for he had not settled the problem of what would Celena become during his absence. He hoped he would have the opportunity to talk to Princess Eries. But this didn’t sound such a good solution. If only Celena and Gaddes…</p>
<p>It happened that during that day, the only one in weeks Celena was alone, a young man came to knock at her door.</p>
<p>It was early afternoon and Celena had finished her tea. For the first time since her reunion with her brother she found herself not busy. She looked at the red-caramel-coloured traces of tea in her white porcelain cup. She didn’t start some sewing crafts, nor writing exercises, nor sword training. She knew she had to wait for someone. Hitomi had definitely left her some of her powers. Had it something to do with her last dream? Celena wasn’t used to dream. She wasn’t used to sleep at all. Usually she just vanished when Dilandau fell unconscious.</p>
<p>She didn’t wait long before she heard brief knocks. She came open the door and discovered a stranger in travelling clothing, standing sheepishly in front of her, looking like an erect spirit in a landscape of green dunes.</p>
<p>‘You made the entire road on foot?’ Celena asked with surprise. Something in the face of the boy –the humility of his features maybe– moved her. She invited him inside and poured tea for both of them.</p>
<p>The young man was a little shorter than her. He wasn’t very well-built but his figure was elegant, supple like a panther. His hair was gathered in a pony-tail but some brown strands surrounded his face, softening even more his long dark eyes. He displayed an embarrassed smile.</p>
<p>‘My name is Feri, but you used to know me as Refina.’</p>
<p>Celena clicked her fingers. ‘Of course! Now I recognise you. I had no idea you had troubles with the sorcerers too.’</p>
<p>‘I came because I remember that Dilandau and Refina were quite close…’</p>
<p>‘You did well. I’m happy to meet you. So you were abducted by the sorcerers like me?’</p>
<p>‘Not exactly… It’s a complicated story.’</p>
<p>Celena poured him more tea and smiled. This was enough to persuade the boy to go on.</p>
<p>‘I was born in a noble family as you know. But my brother and I were twins, which is a terrible thing. For the matter of the inheritance. The sorcerers offered to settle the problem by turning me into a woman. In exchange they asked that my brother became their apprentice.</p>
<p>‘And your family accepted?’</p>
<p>‘Yes, and so Refina was created.’</p>
<p>‘Did they purposely make her eager to fight?’</p>
<p>‘I’m not sure.’</p>
<p>Celena watched the young man thoughtfully. He and Refina seemed radically different. Feri didn’t have a fighting aura. Not at all. Actually that was rather a rare thing for a living being. And Refina was a natural-born warrior. Except for their feline demeanour and some facial features they had nothing common.</p>
<p>‘But, did Refina know the whole story?’ the girl asked.</p>
<p>‘No, she had no idea of that and me neither. When I became myself again I had no memory at all. My brother explained to me.’ There was a brief twitch on Feri’s face. ‘Refina’s memories came back to me later.’</p>
<p>‘And now? What are you gonna do?’</p>
<p>‘Well, I want to help Adelphos rebuilding Zaibach. There’s a lot to do.’</p>
<p>Celena raised an eyebrow. ‘<i>Adelphos</i>?’</p>
<p>‘Ah, you must think I’m being too familiar,’ Feri gave a thin smile. ‘The general adopted me after the war. He is my family now.’</p>
<p>‘Oh I see. Good for both of you. Please present my respect to him when you return.’</p>
<p>Feri’s smile turned mischievous.</p>
<p>‘He is still not sure he has met you for real, you know.’</p>
<p>‘Oh no, not for real, but I still became attached to him.’</p>
<p>The young man chuckled.</p>
<p>‘So that’s it? What about you?’</p>
<p>‘Me? Hmm I have my brother. My blood brother I mean.’ Celena wave evasively, avoiding revealing her true intentions. ‘Speaking of family, I’m pretty sure you still have a fiancé.’</p>
<p>Feri grinned.</p>
<p>‘Gatti? He was very courteous with Refina. She could count on him although he had no feeling for her.’</p>
<p>‘He is a really reliable person.’</p>
<p>‘I remember that Dilandau and you were very close,’ Feri said, looking concerned. ‘I hope the separation wasn’t too much hard. For my part I never met Refina and yet I miss her a lot,’ he said sadly. ‘You and Dilandau knew each other. I guess you must be grieving.’</p>
<p>‘I’m sad about his disappearance but…’ she paused, ‘do you wish Refina was still there?’</p>
<p>‘Yes but it’s not like I could ever see her. We are more like to faces of the same person. Two personality traits.’</p>
<p>The young people looked silently at each other.</p>
<p>Celena couldn’t confess her plan to revive Dilandau. The less people knew, the better it was for everyone.</p>
<p>Feri for his part hadn’t told his whole story. He chose to keep for himself the other part of this dark tale.</p>
<p>He didn’t tell her that after the spell of the sorcerers was broken by the dragon and the girl from the Mystic Moon, his brother had found him totally amnesiac. His was the only survivor of his cast and he wanted to use his cursed science to perform again the fate alteration on Feri to keep his title and privileges. However the experiment had failed and Feri was still there, fully conscious and aware of his whole past, including Refina’s memories. The sorcerer had then decided to get rid of his brother to put an end to the affair.</p>
<p>He had raised a dirk above Feri, still strapped to the operating table, but suddenly Adelphos Gein had burst in the devastated laboratory. The officer was badly wounded externally and not better inwardly. Looking like an enraged boar, he was puffing and foaming at the mouth, his hands clenched on his sabre. His eyes had glittered when he had caught sight of the black cloak of the sorcerer. He had stammered incomprehensible pieces of sentence about the sorcerers making his life hell, and, going through a crisis of insanity he had killed Feri’s brother for the reason he was wearing that cloak.</p>
<p>‘I almost forgot!’ Feri exclaimed, breaking his silent exchange with Celena. ‘Adelphos found it on the battlefield,’ he said, handing a dagger to the girl.</p>
<p>‘Dilandau’s knife? Thank you! He’ll be pleased to have it back,’ Celena said and opened widely her eyes while covering her mouth with both hands.</p>
<p>The young man smiled mischievously.</p>
<p>‘I didn’t hear anything.’</p>
<p>In the late afternoon Celena walked part of the way with Feri who was leaving. They silently crossed the lands of the Schezars. The air was starting to get fresh and the birds flew off from behind the hills, like seabirds above green waves.</p>
<p>‘I like this country,’ Feri said dreamily, ‘such sceneries are never seen in Zaibach.’</p>
<p>‘I can’t believe I forgot this place,’ Celena replied. ‘You’re welcome here anytime, you know.’ She casted a glance at Feri and laughed. She knew the boy had to go. She felt like Geroka in his tale mountain. It was the same feeling of being in a perfect land, and yet something else, something fame more down-to-earth was calling Feri –and she– away.</p>
<p>The young man pointed at a hill where riders were barely distinguishable.</p>
<p>‘Is it you brother?’</p>
<p>‘Yes,’ Celena said and put her hand on her forehead to look at the sky. Above them Allen’s white owl made a broad circle. ‘I’m gonna join him. Be well, Feri, and good luck for rebuilding Zaibach.’</p>
<p>‘We’ll see each other again, won’t we?’ Feri asked.</p>
<p>‘That’s more than probable. Especially if New Zaibach starts diplomatic relations with Freid.’</p>
<p>They waved and went their ways.</p>
<p>Celena met the riders on the top of the next hill she climbed.</p>
<p>Allen dismounted first to embrace her. Then came Gaddes having slight shadows under his eyes due to the trip and yet relaxed and pleasant.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>Thank you for reading! Next chapter coming soon</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0020"><h2>20. Gaddes</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Here comes the weird part of the story, hope you like it anyway ;)</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>The night was already falling, sign that autumn has come. Along the winding road in the forest, the stagecoach disturbed the eventide wildlife by the sound of its wheels on the stony ground and the cracks of the whole vehicle when it hit a bigger stone.</p><p>Celena was sitting alone in the passenger compartment, trying to watch the trees wrapped in a thicker and thicker darkness. Kio was driving the carriage with large movements, as if piloting the Crusade. Reeden, sat next to the broad man opened the small curtain from time to time, to check if Celena was alright and to chat a little with her. Not too much or it would have been “unseemly”. For the same reason he couldn’t travel with Celena inside the stagecoach. Allen wouldn’t have appreciated. The maiden found the rule stupid. Especially when a heavy rain had fallen upon them on the way out of the suburbs. The two soldiers had had a strong shower while she had the whole spacious wagon for herself. Somehow funny but still stupid.</p><p>The reason Gaddes wasn’t part of the escort was that he and Celena had got along too well with each other. The success of Allen’s plan had exceeded his expectations. Now he didn’t want the young people to be too close.</p><p>It wasn’t Celena’s intention. She had liked the sergeant straight away, and thus had spent a lot of time with him during his visit at the Schezars domain. Gaddes was a great playmate, more carefree than Jajuka and cooler than the dragonslayers. They had sparred a lot with swords, had competed in horse races and had talked of everything. Celena found the young man really interesting. Unlike his brother and most people around her he wasn’t so concerned about what was seemly to say to a maiden or not. So she had literally made him talk of everything he knew about this world which was still mysterious for her.</p><p>At first it hadn’t been so easy for them to get to know each other for Allen was around, and Gaddes feared to offense him by speaking to his sister –for other matters than usual courtesy. But the knight purposely arranged moments of tranquillity for them and they had quickly become as thick as thieves.</p><p>Allen and his men had then left for his fortress along with his men, letting Celena in Princess Eries’s care. Soon after, the girl had expressed her desire to visit her brother who had sent her an escort.</p><p>She had been repetitively told by the people of the Court of Asturia that travelling alone was highly unseemly for a woman and dangerous, even for men. Celena had been deeply sorry to learn that slave trading was common everywhere in her mother country and widely tolerated.</p><p>But these rules of behaviour for women and men were absurd. Back then in Zaibach, she had thought it was a part of General Adelphos’s personality and that Dilandau imitated him for his superior was his only male model. However it seemed that most men and women in the world –including her brother– had that same strange way of thinking. Sometimes she wished she was still in the mirror. There she was actually free. And when she got out to interfere with the external world through the “power of thought” she was still free. Not even Dilandau tried to prevent her from going her way.</p><p>***</p><p>The next day at nightfall she escaped the noisy living room of Allen’s castle. Her brother followed her out of the corner of his eye and she waved at him before closing the door. They both knew that Gaddes was in the stable, looking after his mare that had sprained an ankle.</p><p>But Allen chose to let Celena go.</p><p>When the maiden entered the stable the setting sun was throwing warm colours on the straw and the wooden stalls. It reminded her of Fortona Temple, except that this time she was alive.</p><p>Gaddes and Celena exchanged a smile, then she sat in one corner of the box stall, watching the man and the mare.</p><p>‘Just a moment and I’m all yours, Miss,’ Gaddes said, bending over the hoof of his mount. ‘I just have to finish her bandage.’</p><p>‘Take your time,’ Celena replied, looking the bay mare in the eye. The horse too was very patient. It would have said the same words if it had been able to speak.</p><p>The maiden folded her arms around her knees.</p><p>‘I’d like to speak with you quite seriously,’ she said.</p><p>‘<i>Quite</i> seriously?’ the young man let go his horse’s hoof and checked the rest of its body.</p><p>‘You can take it seriously or not. I suggest that you don’t take it too much seriously.’</p><p>‘I can do that.’ He patted the animal’s neck.</p><p>‘I need a fake wedding.’</p><p>‘Huh!’</p><p>‘I mean, a real wedding –official– but it will be fake for us.’</p><p>‘Us?’</p><p>‘You’ll be the bridegroom.’</p><p>Gaddes gulped.</p><p>‘I see.’</p><p>There was a silence during which he put the first-aid kit away on a shelf.</p><p>‘May I ask you why?’ he asked, trying to look relaxed but he couldn’t prevent himself from casting a glance toward the door.</p><p>‘You’re not gonna run away, are you?’</p><p>He came and sat in front of her, smiling as broadly as he could. It was unusual to see Gaddes ill-at-ease.</p><p>‘You’re not kidding.’ he stated, looking serious.</p><p>Celena shook her head negatively and smiled pertly.</p><p>‘But it <i>is</i> funny. Isn’t it?’</p><p>Gaddes shrugged.</p><p>‘It’s a way of seeing things.’</p><p>‘So here is the matter,’ the girl started, ‘my brother wants me to be happy and safe, which is nice. The problem is that he thinks it is his responsibility. There are things I have to do so I need to travel. Allen made it clear that my journey from Palas to Castelo was an exception because, you know, women mustn’t travel alone.’</p><p>‘Well, it is actually dangerous.’</p><p>‘For me? You are well aware that I am as strong as my brother.’</p><p>Gaddes grinned.</p><p>‘I know. But there’s no need for everyone to know that. Your reappearance was already suspicious. It could cause trouble to the boss.’</p><p>‘See? Another stupid rule! Don’t tell me you agree with all those damn arbitrary codes of conduct!’</p><p>‘I understand your point of view. But how can a wedding solve the problem?’</p><p>‘I’ll live with your family. No one will reprove that. You’ll be here doing your duty and I’ll be away at home.’</p><p>‘But you want to travel.’</p><p>‘People don’t need to know every time I go for a walk. Listen; is there a person with who you want to live with?’</p><p>‘Not currently, but…’ Gaddes didn’t know what to add.</p><p>‘You can see anyone you want; you’ll just have to be discreet with Allen. Only our families will know about the wedding, so it won’t change your life here. And if you fall in love with someone you can just leave me. I won’t forbid you anything and I’m sure you can stand the disapproval of society.’</p><p>‘And what about you? You’re gonna meet boys, what if you want to marry for real?’</p><p>‘The question won’t arise, Gaddes. I want to be child, a mother, but not a woman.’</p><p>The young man scratched his head.</p><p>‘It is both immoral and naïve. You’re really strange. Look; suppose we do that, if Allen learnt the truth he would kill us. That’s a huge lie!’</p><p>‘First, he’ll kill only you and he’ll be very mad at me. Maybe he’ll send me in a convent. And second, there is no lie: it will be a real wedding.’ She paused. ‘We just won’t see each other a lot. Or more accurately we will see each other very rarely.’</p><p>Gaddes remained silent for some minutes. There were a million arguments to put forward against that crazy plot. However he supported her desire of freedom.</p><p>‘Okay,’ he simply said in the end.</p><p>Now he could see the funny side of things and he was curious to see how far she could go and what she would do with her freedom.</p><p>‘Thank you very much. And since you’re never gonna ask, I should tell you now,’ Celena said, ‘I don’t expect you to marry me for free.’</p><p>‘What do you mean?’</p><p>‘In exchange I’ll take care of your mother in her old days. And I’ll take care of you too if you become doddering and bedridden.’</p><p>‘That’s a very attractive proposition,’ Gaddes retorted with a smirk.</p><p>They chuckled briefly.</p><p>‘Now all you have to do is to see Allen and ask for my hand.’</p><p>‘Yeah, I’m gonna do that,’ he said and remained unmovable.</p><p>‘Do you think it is really bad?’ she asked.</p><p>‘Yes and no. You’re not causing harm, but you’re not gonna be honest with your brother. Is that okay with you?’</p><p>‘It is a secret, but I should tell everything to my future husband, right?’ she said mischievously. ‘I’m gonna become Chid’s bodyguard or something like that. Then I will tell Allen everything.’</p><p>‘He’s gonna hate me.’</p><p>‘Not after I’ve told him the marriage was never consummated. He’ll be over the moon.’</p><p>‘Maybe. But how are you gonna enter Chid’s service?’</p><p>‘It’s alright, I’ve already promised him.’</p><p>‘So that’s why we have to get married?’</p><p>Celena smiled.</p><p>‘Yes.’</p><p>Gaddes smiled in his turn.</p><p>‘You’re lying.’</p><p>‘There is something else but you don’t want to know.’</p><p>‘I believe you.’</p><p>The young man stretched out and stood up. ‘Let’s face the boss, then.’</p><p>***</p><p>The wedding day had happened.</p><p>The church was in a lovely green valley remote from a small village of shepherds. Only Allen, the priest and his deacon were present besides the bride and groom.</p><p>Allen brought his sister in the church and stopped at the entrance. Gaddes was standing in front of the altar, wearing formal clothing. This unusual outfit really didn’t fit him and he uneasily pulled his collar as if it was too tight.</p><p>It was going too fast. The knight didn’t want Celena to get married so soon. But she had looked so radiant when he had told her Gaddes had proposed. He couldn’t refuse her even that.</p><p>Strangely, but happily, Celena had agreed to go to live with Gaddes’s mother, quite far away from Castelo. Therefore, all what Allen had to do was too keep his subordinate very busy so that he wouldn’t have time to visit his wife.</p><p>‘Why are you smirking, Allen?’ Celena asked naively.</p><p>‘Gaddes looks like a fool with this clothing.’</p><p>She chuckled.</p><p>‘You shouldn’t be mean with your brother-in-law.’</p><p>‘Future brother-in-law,’ Allen whispered.</p><p>He put his hands on Celena’s shoulders and looked her in the eye.</p><p>‘If he makes you unhappy…’</p><p>‘I know, I’ll tell Jajuka not to beat him too hard so that you can have your share.’</p><p>‘Good.’ He patted her shoulder and offered her his arm.</p><p>Jajuka would join Celena soon. Allen liked the dogman, mainly because he thought Celena was still five years old and would keep thinking that forever. Before he had left for Shib’s mountains, he and the girl were used to share the same bedroom. With him around, Celena and Gaddes would have very little intimacy.</p><p>Before walking his sister to the altar, Allen pictured Gaddes waiting dumbly near the priest, slightly sweating in his starched clothes and avoiding looking toward them.</p><p>‘You can’t hate him that much,’ Celena said amusedly.</p><p>‘I don’t hate him.’</p><p>‘It’s a good thing Dilandau cannot see that. I’m pretty sure Gaddes would be already dead.’</p><p>The knight’s eyes flickered.</p><p>‘Does Gaddes know about Dilandau?’</p><p>She articulated “no” silently, looking guilty.</p><p>‘So he does not know he may be marrying an insane artificial monster created by mad sorcerers?’</p><p>‘No.’</p><p>Allen sniggered.</p><p>‘Let’s go.’</p><p>The knight had one more reason to be happy that day, and that reason was called Riva. She was Gaddes’s mother and Allen was sure that she and Celena would get along. He had met her a couple of times and had found her truly nice. She was funny and independent, but also highly respectable. A delightful straight and proper old lady.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>Tanks for reading! We'll soon see if Riva is that straight and proper</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0021"><h2>21. Viole</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>If Celena and Gaddes had quickly got close, it was nothing to compare to Celena and Riva. Only one hour after they met the maiden chose to tell everything to the older lady about her fake wedding.</p>
<p>Riva laughed heartily when she heard the whole story.</p>
<p>‘That’s quite a twisted plan! Gaddes must love you very much to get involved into this.’</p>
<p>‘I feel guilty for driving him into this wedding. But he knows I would have understood if he had said no.’</p>
<p>‘Of course he accepted. He is a lover of freedom. And you, are a very stubborn girl; I think,’ the lady said, poking meaningfully her forehead with her knuckles. Her eyes were shining brightly under her sagging eyelids. With her crow’s feet spreading on her temples it was like she was always smiling with her eyes. She made Celena think of Geroka. They had that same uninhibited and lively behaviour and shared the same amusement about young people’s affairs.</p>
<p>‘So you want to use me as an alibi to leave alone?’ Riva exclaimed suddenly. ‘I don’t think so!’ She paused for a few seconds, her index placed thoughtfully on her lips. Then she burst into cheerful laughter. ‘I just remember: my late husband and I have bet on Gaddes’s marriage. I have bet that he would never get married! I’ve lost in the end.’</p>
<p>‘What did you bet?’</p>
<p>‘A fine bottle of wine.’ Riva winked, ‘the man who sold it to my husband swore it came from the Mystic Moon, but who knows. I have to drink it in his place now that he is gone. Do you want to clink glasses with me?’</p>
<p>She took out the bottle of a glass case and let Celena give it a look. It was indeed an unknown writing, but oddly enough the girl could decipher it: <i>Pinot Noir, Alambette Valley</i>.</p>
<p>Riva poured three glasses and raised a toast.</p>
<p>‘To my dear husband and my son’s unexpected wedding!’</p>
<p>***</p>
<p>In Castelo no one knew about Gaddes’s unexpected wedding. No one except Allen and the bridegroom.</p>
<p>Although he did his best, Allen struggled to behave naturally with Gaddes. And what didn’t help was that Gaddes, on the contrary, didn’t seem affected in the least. Actually it was like if this marriage meant nothing to him.</p>
<p>With no explainable reason, Allen kept Gaddes near him more than before. Not really to keep an eye on him or to have private talk. Certainly not to get to know better his brother-in-law. He also spent more time in his personal office, watching out for the mailman through the window.</p>
<p>So Allen was sitting at his desk, reading Celena’s last letter for the fiftieth time. His sister didn’t neglect him since she had moved in Riva’s house. She wrote to him twice or three times a week long letters in which she described how happy she was and how everything was marvellous –without forgetting to repeat she missed him. Allen knew that Gaddes received mail from Celena too, but he didn’t know the frequency. It had been agreed that Celena’s letters would be hidden in Riva’s ones and that Gaddes wouldn’t receive more mail than usually so as not to arouse suspicion.</p>
<p>There was a brief knock at the door and Gaddes entered; looking shy like never before.</p>
<p>‘I’ve received a letter from my mother,’ he said quickly.</p>
<p>Allen raised an eyebrow.</p>
<p>‘So…?’ He tried to look cool but his heart pounded wildly.</p>
<p>‘Err… There was a note from Celena inside, addressed to both of us,’ Gaddes explained, handling a very small piece of paper to the knight. On the sheet Celena had only written that she sent kisses to Allen and Gaddes.<br/>That was an unusual note, indeed, but what frightened Allen was the worry painted on his subordinate’s face. He knew that expression well. It appeared when someone under Gaddes’s responsibility had done something wrong.</p>
<p>‘Maybe you should read it yourself,’ the sergeant said hesitantly, ‘my mother’s letter.’</p>
<p>‘Well,’ Allen took the paper. ‘Stay here!’ he added as Gaddes was taking a step towards the door.</p>
<p>Riva’s letter started with usual concern about Gaddes’s well-being and some comments about the growth of pumpkins. Then the tone changed radically. The lady explained that she and her daughter-in-law were leaving for a journey through Fanelia, for a leisure break.</p>
<p>‘Is it a joke?’ Allen asked coldly.</p>
<p>‘I’m afraid it isn’t.’</p>
<p>‘We have to go and stop them!’</p>
<p>‘Oh…’ Gaddes looked even sorrier. ‘You missed the date of the letter.’</p>
<p>Allen turned as white as sheet when his eyes fell on the date. It dated back to almost two weeks.</p>
<p>‘They must be in Fanelia by now. And I have no idea where they plan to go exactly.’ Gaddes said, arms dangling.</p>
<p>‘I need Van’s help… Or Hitomi’s power!’ Allen said loudly between gritted teeth.</p>
<p>Gaddes scratched his head.</p>
<p>‘I’m sorry, boss. I thought my mother was more reasonable than that.’</p>
<p>‘You don’t look so surprise’ Allen stated with coldness.<br/>The sergeant shrugged. Now that his superior was aware of the situation he started to relax.</p>
<p>‘That looks like them.’</p>
<p>‘To Lady Riva maybe, but not to Celena!’</p>
<p>‘Well, this world is new to her. She needs to know who she is. This kind of journey is good for young people like her. And she is not alone… Huh?’</p>
<p>Allen was looking daggers at him, bare teeth and dilated nostrils.</p>
<p>‘Get-out’!’</p>
<p>Gaddes left promptly but just a moment later Allen called him back.</p>
<p>‘I think you’re not totally honest with me, Gaddes.’</p>
<p>Another kind of embarrassment altered the sergeant’s features.</p>
<p>‘Celena made me promise.’</p>
<p>‘It’s alright. But I need you to be honest with me now. Do you think this trip is good for her?’</p>
<p>‘Yes, she needs it.’ This time there was no hesitation in Gaddes’s voice.</p>
<p>‘So, do you think I should leave her in peace and not interfere?’</p>
<p>A nice smile brightened the dark-haired guy.</p>
<p>‘I think you should come down and drink a couple of pints with the crew.</p>
<p>***</p>
<p>The deep forests of Fanelia, where only half of the daylight and half of the moonlight pierced through the foliage, were a suitable place for fairies and other elves. To pay homage to those invisible but indispensable creatures, the wolfpeople of Ruhm’s village celebrated the ‘Mystic Nights’ during which they took care of the forest, left offering for the spirits, put lights on the trees’ top, told tales, sang, danced around and above fires, ate and drank to their heart’s content.</p>
<p>The first night of their arrival, Celena and Riva had attended, bewitched, those enchanting celebrations. But the second night, Celena let Riva in the illuminated village and entered alone the depth of the wood.</p>
<p>Not far away from the village she found a cave. It was the same cavern in which Dilandau had found Folken and where now lied the corpse of the former strategist, conserved in one of his strange machines.</p>
<p>Only the warning lights of the devices poorly illuminated the room, along with a sort of bright board under Folken’s body. In his glass coffin-like incubator, the young man seemed to be peacefully sleeping.</p>
<p>‘You did it right, Viole,’ Celena exclaimed when she entered the cave.</p>
<p>The boy was standing in the darkness, barely distinguishable against the wall.</p>
<p>‘You should thank Naria and Eriya. They did most of the work’, he replied simply.</p>
<p>‘I’ll do when I’ll see them. Do you know where they are?’</p>
<p>‘Not far away in the neighbourhood. They don’t really want to see you or... whatever will happen here.’</p>
<p>‘I’m sorry you have to do that because of me.’</p>
<p>‘I’m doing it mainly for Lord Dilandau… and a little bit for you,’ Viole conceded with a smile. ‘Can I ask you, Miss,’ he said seriously, ‘why did you pick me for this task?’</p>
<p>‘Because it is said that you dared to kill a priest…’</p>
<p>‘That crook took advantage of his status to extort money from the poor people of my district.’</p>
<p>‘…and that you plundered the grave of a wealthy man.’</p>
<p>The boy nodded.</p>
<p>‘He was a mafiosi who had buried himself with his gold while the population lived in misery.’</p>
<p>‘So I supposed you didn’t fear divine wrath.’</p>
<p>‘I’m not afraid but I’m well aware that I’ll have to face the consequences of my actions one day or another.’</p>
<p>‘And you’re ready to face the consequences of this too?’</p>
<p>‘Yes,’ he said and lit a lantern.</p>
<p>‘So many documents…’ Celena said, rummaging through a pile of sheets. ‘Have you read them all?’</p>
<p>‘Yes, Folken had prepared them for me. I’ve studied them after the war.’</p>
<p>‘Was it hard?’</p>
<p>‘Not really. Folken made the real researches. I just have to follow his instructions. It’s like following a recipe.’</p>
<p>‘I see. We should start then. Looking at this empty body is sad.’</p>
<p>***</p>
<p>In the early morning the sun was hitting on the bare area around the cavern. When they got out, Celena and Viole came across the two leopard sisters, young and full of life, and yet sad and bitter.</p>
<p>‘Naria! Eriya!’ Celena exclaimed happily. ‘You look fine! What happened? I’m truly grateful for what you did.’</p>
<p>The twins looked oddly at Celena, at the same time angry and disarmed by her warm welcome.</p>
<p>‘Zaibach magic was broken by Hitomi and the dragon,’ Naria explained, ‘so it’s like if nothing had happened to us.’</p>
<p>This miraculous rejuvenation didn’t seem to enchant them.</p>
<p>‘And we only helped you because it was Lord Folken’s last wishes,’ Eriya completed.</p>
<p>‘I’m sorry, you must be grieving much.’</p>
<p>There was a silence.</p>
<p>‘It’s been some time now,’ Naria said slowly.</p>
<p>‘Are you gonna stay with the villagers?’</p>
<p>‘Ruhm is kind with us and we are safe,’ Eriya replied.</p>
<p>‘But we are strangers here,’ her sister added.</p>
<p>‘I understand that,’ Celena said with a gentle smile. ‘You know, General Adelphos and Commandant Refina’s alter ego are rebuilding Zaibach. You could go there too, and make New Zaibach a place with no racial discrimination.’</p>
<p>The leopard girls opened wide round eyes and looked at each other.</p>
<p>‘A new Zaibach?’</p>
<p>‘Refina’s alter ego?’</p>
<p>‘Yes, you and Commandant Refina got along well. I’m sure you’re gonna love Feri! If you think that you can’t find your place, then why don’t you build one?’</p>
<p>‘That was what Lord Folken was trying to do,’ Eriya said with interest.</p>
<p>‘But… It’s not like if Zaibach was an empty place,’ Naria argued. ‘People already have their customs… Alright, we can give it a try… A country with no racial discrimination?’</p>
<p>‘And no slavery,’ Celena added dreamily.</p>
<p>‘And more justice between the poor and the wealthy people. Or no gap at all between the rich and the poor,’ Viole said suddenly.</p>
<p>‘What about you two,’ Eriya asked, ‘you’re not going to Zaibach?’</p>
<p>‘There is something else that I want to do,’ Celena replied.</p>
<p>‘It depends on Lord Dilandau,’ was Viole’s answer.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0022"><h2>22. Chesta</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>The sea slowly hit the rocky shore, splashing Chesta’s legs. The boy was walking along the coast, dreamily lost in his thoughts. The night wasn’t falling yet, for the days started to last longer at this period of the year.</p><p>It had been a few months now that Dilandau had gone to war and had never come back.</p><p>After the battle, Viole had left to take care of Folken’s funeral, as promised to Celena. He had returned quickly but had refused to say anything about his business.</p><p>However, just a couple of weeks ago, Jajuka had visited them on his way toward his native mountains. He had given them a letter from Celena in which she said she would come soon. Just after that, Viole had left again. The dragonslayers didn’t know his motive or his destination but they were sure Celena was behind this. Not that they didn’t like her, but they hardly trusted that strange girl. After all, she had spent years with the sorcerers.</p><p>Since they had been left alone, the dragonslayers had kept training, but their sessions became more and more occasional, for they lacked motivation. No more war, no more sorcerers, and no more Lord Dilandau.</p><p>Out of boredom, most of the boys had started to work in the neighbouring farms. Chesta who came from a farmer family and could easily gain the trust of others with his gentle face and manners, had been the first. Then Ryuon who didn’t know what to do with his huge and strong body had started to work in the fields, thus Yaifa had followed him. Then Viole and Guimel. It was soon discovered that the latter had extremely green fingers, so he took care of various vegetables patches and gardens in the area. A black-smith farrier had taken Gatti as an apprentice. Miguel and Dalet did nothing.</p><p>Chesta had been happy to find himself in a farm, with beasts and fields all around him. It was a hard labour but the boy loved it anyway. He was surrounded by smells and colours which moved him with the memory of his childhood. Certainly he was happy, but at the same time he missed his Lord. He blamed himself because he hadn’t been able to protect him. Celena was his last hope to see him again. He couldn’t wait for her arrival.</p><p>These last two weeks had been like a waking dream for him. He walked to and fro, between the cavern were the dragonslayers still lived and the farm, reliving his childhood with his memories of Dilandau. It was as if his story was rewritten, with Lord Dilandau present in every second of his life.</p><p>Chesta was profoundly convinced that all what he had been through was only meant to lead him to Dilandau. That was what had happened the first time they had met and what was happening again. And if the road made detours, it was a pleasant road and the boy was sure it would bring him to his destination without fail.</p><p>Those were Chesta’s thoughts when he came close to the cavern. Miguel, perched on a crag, saw him arriving from afar.</p><p>Every day, the blond boy came back at the same hour, following the exact same rocky path along the shore. It was as if he placed his feet in the same footprints than the day before. Something disturbed Miguel with Chesta’s new peasant look. There was always straw in his hair and his rough clothes were stained and ripped, making him look like a vagrant. But the worse was that stupid smile spread on his dirty face.</p><p>‘What makes you so happy?’ Miguel shouted a bit angrily at him from his spot, just as the boy arrived below.</p><p>‘Hi Miguel!’ Chesta looked up and nimbly climbed on the rock to join the other boy.</p><p>The brown-haired guy had to acknowledge that: the physical work he did in the farms kept him in good condition. Maybe in better condition than himself.</p><p>‘So why were you smiling so dumbly?’ Miguel asked rather drily.</p><p>‘Well, life is good here.’</p><p>‘Really? That’s what you think? I can’t believe what I hear! I thought you were loyal toward Lord Dilandau! I thought you wouldn’t forget him! How can you…’</p><p>‘Miguel,’ Chesta cut him gently, ‘you don’t believe that Lord Dilandau will come back.’</p><p>The brown-haired boy gaped for a split second.</p><p>‘He is… gone,’ he articulated slowly.</p><p>‘Then why are we waiting for him here? He’ll come back in the end. Why don’t you trust him?’</p><p>‘You, you trust Celena too much,’ Miguel replied grouchily.</p><p>‘Ain’t they the same person?’</p><p>‘Hell no! Celena is so… kind and attentive,’ the boy said somewhat scornfully, ‘nothing to compare with Lord Dilandau!’</p><p>‘They have different personalities,’ Chesta conceded.</p><p>‘So what? You gonna keep wandering here and there with that smile on your doll face? I can’t believe you’re really happy! That’s just not possible.’</p><p>Chesta chuckled, and really, it sounded like the laugh of a porcelain doll.</p><p>‘I’m happy now but… there is something I regret.’ His face had suddenly darkened.</p><p>That was an expression that none of his comrades wanted to see on his face. Just like his gentle smile wouldn’t have fitted Dilandau, discontentment just couldn’t fit him.</p><p>‘Now what?’ Miguel asked grumpily, looking at the horizon.</p><p>‘We’ve killed too much people when we hunted the sorcerers.’</p><p>Miguel thought his eyeballs were literally going to pop out of their orbits.</p><p>‘What? You regret what we’ve done?’</p><p>‘I mean, I believe the world is better without the sorcerers, but their soldiers and servants were unnecessary victims.’</p><p>‘You know we couldn’t spare them. If we had let witnesses we would have died before finishing the job.’</p><p>‘Not if we had attacked simultaneously all the bases,’ Chesta argued softly.</p><p>‘It would have reduced our chances to win. Base by base was the safest way.’</p><p>‘For cowards. That’s the problem, we are too weak.’</p><p>‘No it’s logic. That is strategy.’</p><p>‘No, we are too weak. That’s why Dalet keeps training every day.’ Chesta paused. ‘And that is why Lord Dilandau fired us.’</p><p>This time the boy had shut Miguel up, and his dumb gaping mouth and round eyes were a rare sight that Chesta memorised.</p><p>‘Speak for yourself,’ Miguel finally retorted but the other had already left.</p><p>The brown-haired boy headed to the cave in his turn. He could see the small figure of Dalet, training on the pebble beach further away on the coast.</p><p>He entered a hole in the rock, a sort of natural chimney leading to the main room of the cavern. While exploring the area and removing soil, the dragonslayers had discovered a wide network of underground galleries. They had thus decided to take some distance, and instead of piling themselves up in the same room they each had their private cave. They met in the biggest room for meals and otherwise lived their lives apart.</p><p>Not that they got away from each other. On the contrary, most of them felt closer. Instead of being simple comrades who had to spend every moment of their lives together, they were more like brothers, free to meet when they wanted and in the circumstances they wanted. For example they could go fishing, explore the area, take a nap under a tree, study, train, cook or go shopping.</p><p>Miguel knew they were freer than they had never been. But none of them would use this freedom to make project for the future. They were all waiting for Dilandau’s return. And this refusal to enjoy their freedom paradoxically made them even freer.</p><p>The boy walked in the dark tunnel, letting his fingers running on the wall. He could have used a torch but he preferred moving blindly to better enjoy silence and loneliness, and the fresh humid air of the cavern.</p><p>He knew they were living in a palace. Of course their hideout looked like a fox lair, with no comfort, no window, no luxurious draperies and no servants, but even though, they lived in a palace.</p><p>They were safe and “at home” like they had never been. They had the sea at their feet and endless lands behind them. Nature was generous enough for them and even the peasants showed them respect to them due to their career of dragonslayers.</p><p>Miguel wasn’t totally pleased with that idea. He thought they were supposed to train hard to be ready when Lord Dilandau would return, and certainly not enjoying a life of idleness or working like a commoner.</p><p>There was a light on Miguel’s way. The boy meant to pass in front of Gatti’s room without peeping inside but a pink spot caught his attention. He froze on the threshold.</p><p>‘Don’t tell me you still have it!’</p><p>Gatti indolently raised his eyes toward the boy. He was slumped on his mattress, slowly stroking the satin dress.</p><p>‘Of course I still have it. This dress is made of a rare and precious fabric. I couldn’t let you throw it away!’</p><p>Miguel rolled his eyes.</p><p>‘You’re not serious?’</p><p>‘And this colour is extremely precious too…’</p><p>‘How can a colour be precious?’</p><p>‘It is obtained thanks to an Egzardian mineral and a complex process. It is both a rich and pure pink, called Pink of Egzardia. A highly noble colour.’</p><p>‘Do tell.’</p><p>‘Plus, it has a peculiar resonance with the blue of your eyes.’</p><p>‘Ok, stop.’</p><p>‘I’m serious. It was offered to Refina for the reasons I said, but a pink dress for a blond, clear-eyed maiden… what a lack of taste! No wonder she threw it.’</p><p>‘She threw it because she wanted to be a soldier, not because of its colour!’</p><p>Gatti chuckled.</p><p>‘Yes, you’re right.’ He put the dress away, still stretched in his cot but lifting himself on an elbow. ‘Anyway, I can’t discard such a beautiful thing. It’s like a piece of art.’</p><p>The blond boy was wearing his farrier’s outfit: white shirt and reddish-brown leather pants and apron with burn marks and stains of soot. This simple clothing strangely fitted him well, whereas his dragonslayer’s uniform had always made him look stiff. For the first time he seemed relaxed, almost carefree, and though Miguel didn’t like the global changes of his squad he was pleased by this new Gatti.</p><p>‘Why don’t you give that dress to the farrier’s daughter?’ the brown-haired boy asked after a pause.</p><p>‘She can’t wear it in such a small village. It could only bring her jealousy and troubles,’ Gatti replied with a shrug. ‘No, I think you’re the only one who can actually wear it.’</p><p>Miguel smirked and suddenly bounced to catch the cloth but Gatti swiftly rolled and kept it out of his reach.</p><p>‘I won’t let you tear it up!’</p><p>‘Fine! Do what you want. For what I care!’ Miguel left the room while Gatti was still chuckling.</p><p>***</p><p>During the following week a wind of moroseness blew on the dragonslayers’ lair.</p><p>Guimel came back less and less often, holed up who knows where and Dalet reduced his trainings. Only Chesta escaped this wave of gloominess. He had to use all his cheerfulness and energy to wake up the squad every morning and shake his comrades up all day long. By luck the harvest was over at the farm so his employer had given him a rest. He had thus taken the daily trainings in hand.</p><p>The bout of depression made the dragonslayers look like zombies with a taste for laziness. Each session of sword practiced ended with them going back to bed, downcast as if Dilandau had dismiss them calling them apathetic slugs. Of course Chesta called them slugs many times a day but such words spoken with his chubby face and carillon voice were more funny than demoralizing.</p><p>‘Let’s stop for today,’ Miguel complained in the late afternoon, scratching the sand with the tip of his sword.</p><p>Beside him Gatti nodded and there were murmurs of approval.</p><p>‘Seriously guys!’ Chesta exclaimed with annoyance. He turned around and found himself in front of Ryuon.</p><p>The tall blond boy was the only one who would never complain aloud but the dark purple rings under his eyes and his gaunt features were even more demoralizing than all the moans of the rest of his comrades.</p><p>Chesta shrugged and kicked a pebble. The mob slowly headed toward the cavern.</p><p>As soon as they entered they let themselves fall here and there on crates and bags, half-heartedly arguing about who had to make dinner.</p><p>‘It is high time for Lord Dilandau to come back,’ Chesta grumbled between gritted teeth.</p><p>Just as he had spoken someone stepped on the threshold, someone Chesta thought he would never meet again.</p><p>‘Gen… General Folken?!’ he stammered.</p><p>The man ran his hand through his hair. ‘Not exactly,’ he replied rather cockily.</p><p>‘Jajuka, you’re here too! What does that mean?’</p><p>The dogman growled low in answer and the slender figure of Celena stood out from Jajuka’s broad shoulder, followed by the even slenderer figure of Viole.</p><p>‘Viole!’ Miguel shouted, ‘weren’t you supposed to take Lord Dilandau back? What are you doing with that damn strategist?’</p><p>The named damn strategist giggled.</p><p>‘I’m back,’ he said, ‘and you’d better pledge allegiance to me right away.’</p><p>‘Like the hell we would!’</p><p>‘Miss Celena! What are you planning? We thought you were on Lord Dilandau’s side!’</p><p>‘That witch!’ Yaifa exclaimed, jumping on his feet, ‘we should have killed her along with the sorcerers!’</p><p>A masterful slap sent him bite the dust. The man who had hit Yaifa looked at his metal arm and started to laugh at the top of his lungs, performing a highly insane laughter.</p><p>The boys looked at him, astounded, then at Celena who was smiling and Jajuka who was frowning, and again at the first one.</p><p>‘Lo-Lord Dilandau?’ Chesta stuttered shyly.</p><p>‘Yes, it’s him,’ Viole confirmed.</p><p>‘So, are you ready to pledge allegiance to me once more?’</p><p>Dalet stiffly stood up. Suddenly he was again the inflexible dragonslayer, the ever so self-controlled and proud swordsman.</p><p>‘Sir we cannot pledge allegiance to you once more. If we do it would be equal to disavow our first oath. I couldn’t stand such an infamy.’</p><p>‘As I expected, Dalet,’ Dilandau retorted with a delighted grin.</p><p>‘Well, well,’ a feminine voice was heard, ‘this place smells like a bear’s lair. I’m surprised you don’t have fangs and hair sticking out of your ears you wild kiddos.’ The lady who had spoken moved swiftly inside the room, inspecting the cavern and its inhabitants with amusement. In the eyes of the boys she looked like a withered dark rose of a deep purple-black.</p><p>‘Let me introduce you to Lady Riva,’ Dilandau said, ‘you’ll treat her like my family. Actually she is my sister’s mother-in-law. So prepare dinner and accommodation for her.’</p><p>‘To sleep here?’ Riva exclaimed, ‘Oh good heavens no, I’d rather sleep under the stars.’</p><p>Dilandau clicked his fingers.</p><p>‘Then build a house for her outside.’</p><p>‘But Lord Dilandau,’ Chesta was still staring at him with wide round eyes, ‘are you gonna, err… stay in Folken’s body forever?’</p><p>‘Why not? It’s a very strong body… And look at that arm!’ he said, proudly folding and unfolding his sharp metal fingers. ‘Of course my original body was more handsome, but let me show you something,’ he added and removed his shirt.</p><p>‘Maybe I should have taken this body and let you mine,’ Celena muttered mischievously.</p><p>‘Too late, sister!’ Dilandau gaily replied and spread his wings, making a cloud of feathers twirl.</p><p>‘Weren’t they black before?’ he asked. ‘Too bad, it was a nice colour.’</p><p>‘We really gonna be damned for eternity after what we did,’ Viole whispered with a dark look.</p><p>‘Oh well, red is beautiful too,’ Dilandau said with a smirk.</p><p>‘Lord Dilandau, you should keep your wings out of everyone’s sight,’ Jajuka warned.</p><p>‘Dammit Jajuka! You’re such a killjoy.’</p><p>‘He is right,’ Celena interfered, ‘there’s a reason Folken made you promise to keep his secret.’</p><p>‘Who’s that little boy waiting outside?’ Riva suddenly asked, ‘ah, but he is not so young.’</p><p>‘Guimel!’ Miguel scolded ‘where were you during all that time?’</p><p>The boy gazed absently at the group who made way to let him enter.</p><p>‘I’ve collected seashells… Oh, hello Lord Dilandau, long time not see. Are we going off to war soon?’</p><p>‘Not, not for now,’ Dilandau replied, folding his arms and frowning lightly.  ‘The world is at peace.’</p><p>‘Hold on a minute, Guimel, how do you know he is Lord Dilandau,’ Miguel asked.</p><p>‘Are you blind or what?’ the fluffy-haired boy retorted with annoyance.</p><p>‘Hey! You’d better not make fun of me, you…’</p><p>‘Enough!’ Dilandau snapped.</p><p>‘Lord Dilandau!’ Chesta cried, ‘what with you shadow? Where is it?’</p><p>‘And where is Celena’s shadow?’ Yaifa added.</p><p>Dilandau watched his feet with a pout.</p><p>‘We’ve crossed the line,’ Viole answered in his place. ‘The sorcerers created a living being from Miss Celena’s body but they shouldn’t coexist. Taking Folken’s body as a host for Lord Dilandau is like a deal with the devil. Defying Death has a cost.’</p><p>‘Don’t be so gloomy, Viole,’ Celena said, ‘I prefer to think that Dilandau and I are reciprocally each other’s shadow. So as long as we shared the same body a shadow was visible, but not anymore because we parted.’</p><p>‘I really like your way of  looking at things, my dear Celena,’ Riva said with a laughter, ‘and if Viole is right, I’m pretty sure Dilandau and the Devil will get along well in Hell.’</p><p>The dark red eyes of the man who had once been Folken shone pertly before scowling at the dragonslayers.</p><p>‘So? Are you gonna stand idly by for long? Make us a decent dinner and beds.’</p><p>‘Yes sir!’ they chorused.</p><p>Jajuka and Celena gave them a hand to build a rudimentary wooden shack, bringing their strength, and –for Celena’s part at least– good mood. In the meantime Dilandau and Riva sat in front of the sea to chat casually and share a bottle of wine.</p><p>As the night was falling the boys were bringing pillows and blankets to complete the hut while Jajuka and Guimel were lighting a big camp fire.</p><p>Chesta finished making beds and went out of the shack. He came across Celena near the fire.</p><p>‘Miss Celena, thank you for bringing us back Lord Dilandau! And for your sacrifice…’</p><p>‘What sacrifice? Oh, you mean my shadow? It’s no big deal; I had no use of it.’</p><p>‘But people will be wary of you, they may be superstitious.’</p><p>‘Don’t worry about that. I wanted Dilandau back,’ she said and smiled.</p><p>Chesta returned a bright warm smile and his eyes sparked like those of a child.</p><p>‘Well, well, that is a nice smile,’ Lady Riva said, pinching Chesta’s cheek between her fingers. ‘Was totally worth selling your soul to the devil.’</p><p>On the other side of the fire, Dilandau was silently watching the scene, almost smiling at this.</p><p>Maybe it was only due to the swaying flames that threw mysterious colours on his face, but his features suddenly looked more like his original body.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>Only one chapter to go... thank you for reading so far!</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0023"><h2>23. Celena</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Celena chose to leave around ten days later.</p><p>The weather was getting cold and windy and the sea rumbled in the distance. Probably the dragonslayers and Dilandau wouldn’t stay long either.</p><p>‘Before I leave I should give you this back,’ the maiden said and handed the dagger to Dilandau.</p><p>The young man watched the weapon thoughtfully but didn’t move his arm.</p><p>‘You should keep it. I’ll be reassured.’</p><p>‘But you know I’m gonna use it to serve Chid? Is that okay with you?’</p><p>Dilandau made a pout and frowned, then he looked away and shrugged.</p><p>‘It’s fine if it’s what you want.’</p><p>Celena smiled from ear to ear.</p><p>‘I hope our elder brother will be as understanding as you.’</p><p>Dilandau gave an uneasy crooked smirk.</p><p>Day after day, his former features appeared on his new face, although he was still as tall as Folken. He had done his hair according to his habit and he wore his old tarnish diadem. However the jewel was still as bright as his purple irises.</p><p>‘One more thing that I have to tell you,’ Celena resumed. ‘In exchange of his body Folken asked that you give up your vengeance on his little brother.’</p><p>‘Van…?’ Dilandau said hesitantly. He stroked his cheek. ‘Well, my scar is gone, it seems, so I guess I can… possibly… consider… not to… try to burn him to ashes.’</p><p>‘Thank you Dilandau.’</p><p>‘I’m ready, Celena,’ Jajuka said and joined them on the shore, carrying a huge backpack. It contained supplies for their trip but actually it was mainly filled with gifts and various items from his clan in the mountain. ‘Lady Riva, are you sure you want to stay?’</p><p>‘Yes,’ the old woman stated firmly, her eyes shining gaily. ‘I became attached to those little rascals,’ she exclaimed and pinched Chesta’s cheek between her thumb and index.</p><p>The boy was doomed to perpetually wear a red spot on his right cheek for Lady Riva had got into the habit of pinching it all too often.</p><p>‘We’re gonna miss you Miss Celena!’ Chesta said and offered her his warm smile.</p><p>The girl engraved this smile in her memory. She often recalled it during her journey towards Freid and the first weeks she spent there. Her thoughts and behaviour hadn’t been so important when she didn’t exit. But now that she had decided to give meaning to her life she had to know what she was doing. She had been thinking a lot about how she should act towards Chid: a protector, mentor, family, confidant, counsellor, teacher…? In the end she had come back to her first intuition: to lead her life with a dagger and a smile. Happen what may, she would be ready. And that seemed to be also the way Chid wanted to reign.</p><p> </p><p>Chid welcomed her as simply as the previous time. He met Jajuka who made a good impression on the Freiden soldiers, pleased by his strength and composure.</p><p>Then the boy and the maiden had to wait for a few weeks before having the opportunity to see each other privately.</p><p>‘I’m happy that you finally found your friend,’ Chid said first.</p><p>‘Now I am ready to serve you, but I doubt your entourage will accept me,’ she replied, ‘I’ll have to remain in the shadows.’</p><p>‘At first, yes. But that cannot last long,’ the little boy said with optimism. ‘My people know to acknowledge someone’s value and faithfulness.’</p><p>‘There is another reason why I cannot stand by your side in the daylight.’</p><p>‘You mean your lack of shadow? That will probably cause suspicion and troubles. However it can also bring respect and admiration. Plaktu was a highly venerated priest. He was a very strange man who used to leave his body and to get inside people’s mind. So when he first appeared in the capital, most of us rejected him. Then he became the Duke’s counsellor and soon no one put his word in doubt anymore.’</p><p>‘I trust you, Duke Freid.’</p><p>‘You can call me Chid when we’re alone.’</p><p>‘And you can call me aunt… sometimes.’</p><p>At this moment Chesta’s smile disappeared from Celena’s mind for it was replaced by a new one, the most angelic she had ever seen.</p><p>***</p><p>
  <i>My dear husband,</i>
</p><p>
  <i>I hope you are doing well in your solitary fortress.</i>
</p><p>
  <i>I must say I miss Asturia’s green plains and woods, but I just have to smell the flowers Allen sent me and I am back there for a moment. You know, those are the pretty yellow ones whose I never knew the name and which were my mother’s favourites.</i>
</p><p>
  <i>Things are alright at the Court of Freid. Zaibach and Freid are making preparations for trade agreements. Feri, of whom I spoke is not for nothing in this new understanding.</i>
</p><p>
  <i>Jajuka gets along well with Chid and his people but he spends all the livelong day in the baths because he cannot stand the heat. Although he claims the contrary I am pretty sure that he actually loves that.</i>
</p><p>
  <i>Chid grew up a little bit, nevertheless he is still small. I started to teach him sword, unfortunately it turns out that I am a terrible teacher, so Jajuka took the helm.</i>
</p><p>
  <i>Allen is going to visit me soon; I am really looking forward to see him again! He seems to agree with my choice, now, and I have reason to believe he may find a way to be closer to Chid while serving Asturia. Maybe he talked to you of a mission of ambassador’s escort? I would be very happy if you joined too!</i>
</p><p>
  <i>Kind Regards,</i>
</p><p>
  <i>Celena</i>
</p><p>
  <i>PS: I hope your mother gave you news. If she didn’t I assure you that she is doing fine, probably somewhere in Zaibach with D</i>
</p><p>‘CELENA! CELENA!’</p><p>‘The young woman started and made an ink spot on the letter she was writing.</p><p>‘Dilandau? What are you doing here? I thought you were in Zaibach!’</p><p>‘Celena, I need your help!’ the youngster said quickly. With his eyes wide open, beads of sweat and tense features he looked like he had just faced Her Majesty the Death. He rummaged in the room and took out of a closet a small mirror which he put on the desk.</p><p>‘Look!’ he cried, placing himself in front of the mirror.</p><p>‘Folken!’ Celena exclaimed astounded.</p><p>‘Well, hello Celena!’ the reflection in the mirror replied rather gaily.</p><p>‘He is there for three days!’</p><p>‘Wait, you mean you made all the way from Zaibach in only three days?’</p><p>‘That’s not the point!’</p><p>Celena took a look through the window.</p><p>‘Does it have something to do with the molten guymelef in the backyard?’</p><p>‘Celena! I’m talking seriously!’ Dilandau yelled, still panic stricken. ‘THERE IS FOLKEN IN MY MIRROR!’</p><p>‘Your shadow is back too,’ the maiden noticed with composure.</p><p>‘Yeah, the shadow… I guess that is not a bad thing,’ Dilandau calmed down some. ‘But…’</p><p>‘There is nothing to worry about, I think,’ Celena added quietly. ‘I used to appear in your mirror when you were in my body and now you’re in Folken’s body, so… it’s logic that he appears in his turn. By the way, how are you doing in there, Folken? Do you like being Dilandau’s shadow?’</p><p>The reflection chuckled.</p><p>‘It’s better than death, I guess, and quite funny for the moment!’</p><p>‘You two don’t start doing that again!’ Dilandau scolded. Why were them both so happy when they saw each other?</p><p>‘You’ve totally regained your former appearance, except for the height,’ Celena observed. ‘Do you still have wings?’</p><p>‘Of course!’</p><p>‘Can you fly?’</p><p>‘Of course not! What do you take me for? A bird?’</p><p>‘Well, now Folken can teach you.’</p><p>‘I don’t need his help! Dammit! For the first time in my life I had a little privacy and now… I can never be alone!’</p><p>Celena smiled. It wasn’t like if Dilandau actually preferred being alone.</p><p>‘So how it is going in Zaibach? The dragonslayers and Lady Riva are happy?’</p><p>‘Yes,’ Dilandau replied grumpily. ‘As you suggested I went see General Adelphos. At the beginning I think he wasn’t so eager to enlist me in his new army. But then Lady Riva talked to him and he agreed.’</p><p>‘Will you please present my respect to him? Also, what do you think of Feri?’</p><p>‘He is much less fun than Refina. And he cannot fight properly!’</p><p>Celena tilted her head.</p><p>‘You still do love fight.’</p><p>‘And guess what? General Adelphos wants peace! Yeah, with every country! What is the point of taking the power if it’s to establish peace?’</p><p>‘If you’re bored in Zaibach, you can come in Freid. You know, since Chid is a little boy his opponents may think he can be easily manipulated or assassinated. You could fight his adversaries, what do you say?’</p><p>‘I say I might be the one who kills him! If someone great plans to take his place.’</p><p>‘Are you aware of politics in Freid?’</p><p>‘A little, but... no one can measure up to Folken. He was the best for manipulation, assassination and dirty tricks! If only he agreed to pick up the torch again, we could shake the whole world!’</p><p>‘I’m done being a cold and Machiavellian strategist,’ Folken replied, ‘Now I want to fully enjoy my ghost life.’</p><p>‘Pathetic,’ Dilandau scoffed.</p><p>‘If you’re bored, you can take a ride to Fanelia so that I can see my little brother.’</p><p>‘In your dreams! If I bump into him he’s dead meat! And what would I do in such a rundown hole?’</p><p>‘I don’t know… Maybe fight a couple of earth dragons?’</p><p>Dilandau bit his lips and remained silent for a split second.</p><p>‘Fanelia’s dragons are strong…’ he muttered to himself, his irises gently shinning with greediness. He tapped the hilt of his sword and stroked his chin. ‘Maybe I could go for a look around there.’</p><p>‘I was right, being Dilandau’s reflection’s gonna be so much fun!’ Folken chuckled and winked at Celena.</p><p>‘I’m gonna miss that period of my life,’ the young woman replied. She folded the letter for Gaddes and took down her sword from the wall. ‘I have training with Jajuka,’ she said, ‘do you want to join us?’</p><p>‘No, thank you,’ he retorted, somewhat scornful. ‘I train by my own.’</p><p>‘But you need a combat instructor to get better. Be careful, now that the link between us is broken, nothing prevents me from becoming stronger than you. I may end up beating you one day.’</p><p>Smiling, she put on her training pads.</p><p>Dilandau watched her, mesmerised by her composure and confidence. Indeed the link was broken and he could no longer understand what was hatching in her head. But strangely enough he wasn’t bothered by this new state of things. It was like if his faith in her had grown for she was henceforth a whole person.</p><p>‘So, are you coming?’ she asked again, waiting at the door.</p><p>‘No. You know Celena, I’m happy that you've managed to leave the mirror.’</p><p>She stopped smiling with her mouth and instead her eyes shone with a new tenderness and something like pride.</p><p>‘But we have left it together.’</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>And that's it! Thank you for reading, hope you liked it!<br/>There's other stuff I wanted to write about Escaflowne but I made the mistake to watch Toward the Terra so currently I'm writing about it.<br/>I feel like I'm betraying Esca... Hopefully I'll come back to it soon!</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
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